Mexico pipeline death toll climbing

The total rises to 89 deaths from a massive fire at an illegally tapped pipeline as more have died at hospitals.

MEXICO CITY — The death toll in a massive fire at an illegally tapped pipeline in Mexico rose to 89 Monday as more of the injured have died at hospitals.

Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said 51 victims severely burned in the fire were still in hospitals, two of them in Galveston, Texas.

The victims were gathering gasoline from an illegal pipeline tap in the central state of Hidalgo on Friday when the gas ignited, littering an alfalfa field with charred bodies.

The fire occurred on a 14-inch underground steel pipeline that had been drilled, tapped and patched before.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico’s fuel ducts are antiquated and decaying.

“These pipelines haven’t been changed in more than 30 years, with thousands of illegal taps, patched-up pipelines without the capacity to carry fuel,” he said Monday. “That is why it was decided to expand delivery with tanker trucks.”

He said the government has signed contracts to buy 571 gas tanker trucks, which would be operated by the army. Civilian drivers have been recruited, but are now living at army bases, waiting for the trucks to arrive.

Tlahuelilpan resident Arely Calva Martinez said her brother, Marco Alfredo Calva, had been in the field on Friday and still hasn’t been found. About 57 of the charred bodies were so badly burned they couldn’t be recognized.

Calva Martinez said Marco, a teacher, needed gas to drive 1½ hours each day to his job as a teacher.

“They didn’t have gas because the gas stations weren’t selling any, and he needed to get to work,” said Calva Martinez.

CLAUDIO CRUZ / AP Soldiers on Sunday guard the site where a gas pipeline exploded Friday in the village of Tlahuelilpan, Mexico.