Where were you April 17, 2013? It's a question everyone in West can answer. That's the day a fire at the West Fertilizer Company sparked an explosion that killed 15 people, 12 of them first responders, and destroyed 120 homes.
"Oh, I liked the old house," said Ken Maler as he sat outside his rebuilt home. "I'd give anything to have it back."
It's been four years since the explosion and most of the destroyed homes in West have been rebuilt.
"Everything, all this you see is new," said Maler pointing to the new stone-faced homes in his old brick home neighborhood. "That new house, that just moved in on the corner here. They're new people."
There are still signs of the disaster near the explosion site. There's a blown out house, old trucks, and an empty field where the fertilizer plant once stood. There is a lot of new, too. A new school, new nursing home, and new public park, to name a few.
"Knowing the people that died," said town physician Dr. George Smith, who said he knew every single one of them. "They would be upset if we didn't move on."
To move on, many in West don't believe in looking back. Last year, federal investigators said the fire that caused the explosion was no accident. It was arson. Most people we asked said they didn't need to know who did it to move forward.
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"Things happen in our lives, good and bad," said West High School Football and Track Coach David Woodard. "With this, I don't know that we'll ever really know exactly what happened."
Last week the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the investigating agency, said the investigation into the disaster in West is still active.
"The passage of time doesn't always help us, but I'm very optimistic," said Nicole Strong, a spokeswoman for the ATF. "I feel confident this case is going to be solved."
The editor of the local paper, The West News, says other than a few court delays, there hasn't been much news about the disaster since the investigators declared it a crime.
"For a while I think there was an attitude of I'd like to know who did that," said The West News editor, Sue Pescaia. "But do you really want to know if it's one of your own?"
A memorial is planned for Monday night at St. Mary's Catholic Church of the Assumption in West. The service starts at 7:30 p.m., with a moment of silence at 7:51 p.m., the time of the explosion.
