Subject: Mexico, Tamaulipas, 26 Dead in Mexican Gas Pipeline Fire near US Border
Date
of Email report:Wed 19/09/2012
Report Detail:
Federal investigators will be despatched to the site of the explosion near Reynosa, in northern Mexico
A big fire erupted at a natural gas pipeline distribution center near Mexico's border with the United States on Tuesday, killing 26 maintenance workers and forcing evacuations of people in nearby ranches and homes. Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, initially reported 10 deaths at the facility near the city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas. Later, the death toll was raised to 26, including a man who was run over when he rushed onto a highway running away from the facility. Pemex said at a news conference Tuesday night that the fire was extinguished in 90 minutes and the pipeline was shut off. The pipeline carries natural gas from wells in the Burgos basin.
The company's director-general, Juan Jose Suarez, said four of those killed were Pemex employees and the rest were employed by contractors. He told reporters in Reynosa that 46 other workers were injured, including two hospitalized in serious condition. Suarez said they haven't found any evidence showing it was an attack. Company executives said there was a gas leak, followed by an explosion, but the precise cause had not been determined. "Why there was such leak is something that must be investigated," said Carlos Morales Gil, Pemex's director of exploration and production.
Civil protection officials evacuated ranches and homes within three miles of the gas facility, which is about 1 2 miles southwest of Reynosa. Authorities didn't say how many people were evacuated, but the area is sparsely populated, Tamaulipas state's civil protection director Pedro Benavides told a Televisa station. The highway that connects Reynosa to the industrial city of Monterrey was closed to traffic, authorities said. Egidio Torre Cantu, governor of the state of Tamaulipas, sent condolences to the victims' relatives and vowed to make sure those injured receive help for their recovery.
Pipelines carrying gasoline and diesel in Mexico are frequently tapped by thieves looking to steal fuel. Several oil spills and explosions have been blamed on illegal taps. But thieves seldom target gas pipelines. In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for an oil pipeline explosion in a central Mexico City near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children. The blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles wide in San Martin Texmelucan.
Additional Documentation:
Mexico Pipeline Explosion Kills 29, injured 46 in deadly gas plant fire
REYNOSA, Mexico (AP) -- The death toll in a pipeline fire at a distribution plant near the U.S. border has risen to 29, Mexico's state-owned oil company said Wednesday. At least 46 others were injured, and more might be missing.
Juan Jose Suarez, director of the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos company, told local media earlier in the day that at least five workers had not been seen since the blast. On Tuesday, the company, known as Pemex, said in its Twitter account that a total of seven people were unaccounted for.
President Felipe Calderon said the quick reaction of emergency teams prevented a "real catastrophe," by controlling the fire before it reached the huge tanks of a neighboring gas processing plant.
The enormous fire Tuesday hit a distribution center near the border with Texas that handles natural gas coming in from wells and sends it to a processing plant next door.
"The timely response by oil workers, firefighters and the Mexican army was able to control the fire relatively quickly and avoid a real catastrophe of bigger proportions and greater damages if the fire had spread to the center for gas processing, which is right there," Calderon said in a speech in Mexico City.
The blast and ensuing fire left charred tanks and a mound of tangled steel at the walled plant near the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.
Two of the injured were reported in serious condition.
Dr. Jaime Urbina Rivera, deputy medical director of Hospital Materno Infantil de Reynosa just a few miles from the plant, said his hospital had received nine injured workers with first- and second-degree burns covering 10 percent to 40 percent of their bodies, with the burns concentrated on their backs and legs. They all arrived conscious, he said.
Pemex officials said the blast appeared to have been caused by an accidental leak, and there was no sign so far of sabotage. The Mexican Attorney General's Office opened an investigation into the explosion Wednesday, sending more than 20 investigators into the site, which was blocked to the press.
The facility's perimeter walls, topped with razor wire as a security measure in a country that has seen thieves, saboteurs and drug gangs target oil installations, presented an obstacle for plant workers trying to flee.
Esteban Vazquez Huerta, 18, who was inside the plant when the fire erupted, managed to find a gap in the wire, scale a wall and escape. "We had to climb the wall from that side because the fire, the heat was reaching us," Vazquez Huerta said Wednesday as he stood outside the plant, waiting for word of missing co-workers.
Until the final moments before the explosion there was no sign anything was amiss, Vazquez Huerta said.
