By Jeremy Schwartz
American-Statesman Staff
For half a century, West Fertilizer Co has been a fixture in the town of West, a place where generations of area farmers have gotten custom mixes of nitrate, potash and phosphorus to feed their fields and keep their hay pastures green.
Similar to scores of other small- to medium-sized fertilizer blenders and distributors across the state, it has played a vital role in the farming life of a wide swath of McLennan County.
Before the plant exploded Wednesday evening shortly after closing time, 13 employees worked there. They produced about 5,000 tons of fertilizer a year for local farmers, often custom blended for specific soil types and times of year, according to state records.
“There’s no question that business has done a lot for that town,” said Gary Payne, owner of Brazos Feed and Supply in nearby Waco, who first shopped at the plant in the 1980s when he worked as a hay baler. “In agriculture, you got to have fertilizer, and that was the backbone of that area. In small rural places like that, that’s what it’s like.”
Similarly prominent is the company’s owner, West patriarch Donald Adair, 83, whose family also owns an adjacent grain and farming business. Adair, who bought the fertilizer plant less than a decade ago, was born and raised in West, where several of his children still live.
“The man is devastated by what’s happened,” said West resident Len Martin, who attends the West Church of Christ, where Adair has long served as an elder. “This is just a very hard thing. There are no absolute answers, no easy words to make it go away.”
Adair was attending Bible study when fire broke out at his plant Wednesday evening, according to the Church of Christ’s official organ, the Christian Chronicle.
Martin said Adair is a deeply faithful man who had earned a strong reputation in town.
“I have not heard of anyone in the community who didn’t have respect for the man,” Martin said. “The man has honesty and integrity.”
Adair could not be reached for comment, but by Friday afternoon he had hired a Dallas public relations representative and released a statement.
“As a lifelong resident, my heart is broken with grief for the tragic losses to so many families in our community,” Adair wrote. “My family and I can’t express enough our deep appreciation for the loving service and selfless sacrifice from within and around our community responding to the urgent needs of those affected. I am proud to be associated with West Church of Christ, which has opened its doors to the State of Texas to provide grief counseling services. My family and I will continue to assist in relief efforts through our church family.”
West Fertilizer began as Texas Grain and was founded in 1958 by the Plasek family, according to court do ents in a civil case brought by Adair against the Monsanto Co. in 2007. In 1960, the fledgling company “built a small fertilizer blend plant for farmers in the area and started selling fertilizer and grain storage services for other farmers in Texas,” according to the records.
“The town grew up and around that fertilizer plant,” Payne said. “It’s a staple. That’s how agriculture works.”
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@ Boutons trying to make this about "corporate greed and unsafe conditions" just because a fertilizer plant didn't tell homeland security they had fertilizer....duh.
