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Oil pipeline explosion kills at least 28 in Mexican town
Source: Agencies |
December 21, 2010, Tuesday
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ZOYLA Perez awoke before dawn to a strange, overpowering smell, like gasoline. Outside the ground looked as if it were flowing in tar, as crude oil gushing from a pipeline rushed down the street and into a river.
Suddenly flames leapt skyward as a massive explosion laid waste to large parts of San Martin Texmelucan in central Mexico.
"It was like we were living in an inferno," said Perez, 27. "Everything was covered in smoke."
At least 28 people were killed, 13 of them children, in a disaster authorities blamed on oil thieves. At least 52 people were hurt and 84 remained in a shelter late on Sunday after fleeing the city, which is about 90 kilometers east of Mexico City. More than 115 homes were scorched, 32 of them destroyed.
Though Perez managed to escape with her husband and three children, her brother-in-law's family was missing. People sobbed as firefighters pulled charred bodies from the incinerated homes, some of the remains were barely more than piles of ashes and bones.
Authorities, including President Felipe Calderon, said the explosion was apparently caused by thieves trying to steal crude oil, and local, state and federal agencies promised to stop at nothing to bring whoever is responsible to justice. There were no immediate arrests.
The blast in San Martin Texmelucan, initially estimated to have affected 5,000 residents in a five-kilometer radius, left metal and pavement twisted and in some cases burned to ash in the intense heat.
Investigators found a hole in the pipeline and equipment for extracting crude oil, said Laura Gurza, chief of the federal Civil Protection emergency response agency.
Thieves "lost control because of the high pressure which the fuel exits the pipeline," said Valentin Meneses, interior secretary for the state of Puebla, where San Martin is located.
Several dead bodies were found in cars near the location of the leak, but authorities did not know if they were involved in the theft.
The oil flowed more than one kilometer from the leak down a city street before diverting into a river. At some point a spark of unknown origin caused both to erupt in flames.
State-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said that it had shut down the pipeline.
Pemex has struggled with theft, losing as much as 10 percent of all of its product. Criminals tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars in oil each year, Pemex said.
Suddenly flames leapt skyward as a massive explosion laid waste to large parts of San Martin Texmelucan in central Mexico.
"It was like we were living in an inferno," said Perez, 27. "Everything was covered in smoke."
At least 28 people were killed, 13 of them children, in a disaster authorities blamed on oil thieves. At least 52 people were hurt and 84 remained in a shelter late on Sunday after fleeing the city, which is about 90 kilometers east of Mexico City. More than 115 homes were scorched, 32 of them destroyed.
Though Perez managed to escape with her husband and three children, her brother-in-law's family was missing. People sobbed as firefighters pulled charred bodies from the incinerated homes, some of the remains were barely more than piles of ashes and bones.
Authorities, including President Felipe Calderon, said the explosion was apparently caused by thieves trying to steal crude oil, and local, state and federal agencies promised to stop at nothing to bring whoever is responsible to justice. There were no immediate arrests.
The blast in San Martin Texmelucan, initially estimated to have affected 5,000 residents in a five-kilometer radius, left metal and pavement twisted and in some cases burned to ash in the intense heat.
Investigators found a hole in the pipeline and equipment for extracting crude oil, said Laura Gurza, chief of the federal Civil Protection emergency response agency.
Thieves "lost control because of the high pressure which the fuel exits the pipeline," said Valentin Meneses, interior secretary for the state of Puebla, where San Martin is located.
Several dead bodies were found in cars near the location of the leak, but authorities did not know if they were involved in the theft.
The oil flowed more than one kilometer from the leak down a city street before diverting into a river. At some point a spark of unknown origin caused both to erupt in flames.
State-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said that it had shut down the pipeline.
Pemex has struggled with theft, losing as much as 10 percent of all of its product. Criminals tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars in oil each year, Pemex said.
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