An explosion caused by a fire at a fertilizer plant shocked the city of West tonight. A fire at a fertilizer plant outside of the city of West caused an explosion that rocked the small town causing fires and severe damage to nearby buildings. A nursing home burned to the ground, but everyone inside the building was evacuated. An independent school in the area was partially burned. A house was also destroyed.

An explosion Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant near Waco sent flames shooting high into the night sky, leaving the factory a smoldering ruin, causing major damage at nearby buildings and injuring numerous people.

The blast at the plant in West, a community north of Waco, happened shortly before 8 p.m. and could be heard as far away as Waxahachie, 45 miles to the north.

Authorities say an explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, has injured several people.

A dispatcher with the West, Texas, Fire Department says the explosion happened Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant in the community north of Waco. She says any casualties would be taken to hospitals in Waco.

At 8:29 a.m., Temple High School officials called in a shooting which took place on the exterior of the campus building, according to Brad Sheffield, the school’s director of communications.

The shooting, according to Sheffield, was isolated to one self-inflicted shot. The school immediately went into lockdown to check for any other threats inside the school that has 2,000 students.