Explosions

A beach in San Diego County was open Monday after a military explosive found there led to a two-hour evacuation of the area, officials said. The undetermined type of explosive was found Sunday on Cardiff State Beach, leading to the evacuation of a stretch of the beach, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said. A beachgoer at the northern San Diego County site found the explosive and took it to lifeguards, who called sheriff's deputies. The arson-bomb squad removed the explosive for disposal, and the beach was reopened, officials said.

WEST, Texas - At the Veterans of Foreign Wars post just a few blocks past City Hall here, the donated mattresses form a stack that nearly touches the ceiling. Rows of folding tables are piled high with clothes, and the porch out back has enough water bottles to hydrate an army. That's just Saturday's haul. And the first thing visitors hear when they step inside: "You hungry?" PHOTOS: Texas explosion The smoky scent of barbecue wafted through the room, as did the smell of meatloaf fresh off the grill.

A military explosive device was found Sunday afternoon on Cardiff State Beach, leading to evacuation of a stretch of beach, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said. The explosive device was discovered by a beach-goer, who scooped it up and took it to lifeguards, the Sheriff's Department said. Sheriff's deputies ordered the evacuation and called for the arson-bomb squad. The squad took the device away for disposal, and the evacuation was lifted after two hours. Deputies were unable to determine the kind of explosive device.

WEST, Texas - Ever so slowly, residents driven from their homes by a powerful explosion at a fertilizer plant here were being allowed to briefly enter their devastated neighborhoods Saturday to retrieve possessions and to get a look at the damage inflicted by the blast as powerful as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake. Brandi Cvikel, 17, was among those allowed back into her neighborhood and was surprised by what she saw. In some parts of town, the walls of structures were sheared off by the blast.

As a former bull-rider, William “Buck” Uptmor didn't get spooked by much. So when the fire began at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas, he jumped into his truck and rushed to the scene to assist volunteer firefighters. When his 17-year-old cousin, Reagan Uptmore, heard the explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. plant - a blast so powerful it registered as a magnitude  2.1 earthquake - his first thought was Buck: “I called him … and he didn't answer,” Uptmore said. The family began a frantic search, but Uptmor is still missing and believed to be among the dead in the town of 2,800 in central Texas.

WEST, Texas - The crowd that had gathered - lighting candles, offering prayers, crying as they tightly embraced family and friends - had streamed from the dimly lighted sanctuary of Assumption Catholic Church, but Kelly Nelson lingered behind. “The people who we lost, these are people I know, I see on a daily basis,” Nelson said. “Knowing that I'm never going to see these people on the Earth again is very difficult for me to handle.” On Wednesday night, a blast at a fertilizer plant rocked this small east-central Texas town.

Country star Willie Nelson will play a concert on April 28 to benefit the West Volunteer Fire Department in the wake of the fertilizer plant explosions in West, Texas, near his hometown, which killed at least 13 people, including five volunteer firefighters, and injured 200 earlier this week. "West is just a few miles from my hometown of Abbott,” Nelson said in a statement. “I was born and raised here and it was my backyard growing up. This is my community. These friends and neighbors have always been and are still a part of my life.

WEST, Texas -- Authorities here said Friday that the death toll from the fertilizer plant explosion  Wednesday night  stood at at least 14 people, but they were optimistic that the number of those unaccounted for -- placed at about 60 earlier in the day -- would fall as people were tracked down. Gov. Rick Perry, who visited this small Texas community Friday, said the toll of the explosion was devastating, ravaging a large swath of the town. "It's pretty stunning from up above," the governor, who had flown over the area the day before, said Friday at a news conference.

WEST, Texas - This tiny Central Texas town with Czech roots continued the grim task Friday of pulling bodies from the rubble of a massive explosion at a fertilizer factory. Among the dead are expected to be 12 firefighters and first responders who arrived to fight a raging blaze at the West Fertilizer Co. when the blast occurred. Authorities also sought to remove additional bodies from a nearby residential complex. Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes told the Associated Press that it was "with a heavy heart" that he confirmed a dozen bodies had been pulled from the area of the plant explosion in West, about 20 miles north of Waco.

WEST, Texas - The crowd that had gathered - lighting candles, offering prayers, crying as they tightly embraced family and friends - had streamed from the dimly lit sanctuary of Assumption Catholic Church, but Kelly Nelson lingered behind. “The people who we lost, these are people I know, I see on a daily basis,” Nelson said. “Knowing that I'm never going to see these people on the earth again is very difficult for me to handle.” On Wednesday night, a blast at the West Fertilizer Co. plant had rocked this small town.