Someone deliberately started the fire that triggered the fatal explosion in West three years ago, government investigators announced Wednesday.
They did not identify any suspects. Their conclusion was based on a re-enactment of the fire performed at a research lab in Maryland, according to officials from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas fire marshal’s office. An ATF official said investigators had conducted more than 400 interviews.
The ATF is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to an arrest.
A criminal investigation has been underway since shortly after the blast, which killed 15, injured 300, and leveled a neighborhood in West, about 75 miles south of Dallas. The fire at West Fertilizer Co. burned for 20 minutes before the massive explosion that led to the deaths of many volunteer firefighters.
About a month after the blast, the fire marshal offered three possible causes of the fire: faulty electrical wiring, a spark from a golf cart parked in a shed adjacent to the bin holding the fertilizer, or arson. Today, fewer businesses in Texas sell ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the chemical that exploded in West. But a recent Dallas Morning News analysis of state data found that in up to eight communities, tons of the chemical still sit near schools, houses, nursing homes and even a hospital.