Mexico blast killed at least 85
Section of pipeline that gushed fuel had been a gathering site for thieves, repeatedly damaged and patched.
TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico — People in the town where a gasoline explosion killed at least 85 people and left dozens more missing say the section of pipeline that gushed fuel has been a habitual gathering site for thieves, repeatedly damaged and repaired.
“It was the popular tap,” said Enrique Cerron, 22, who lives near the field. “You could pass by at 11 or 12 in the morning and see people filling up here.”
On Friday, amid countrywide fuel shortages at gas stations as the government attempts to stem widespread fuel theft, this particular section of pipeline came back in service for the first time in nearly four weeks, and somebody punctured the line again.
Word quickly spread through the community of 20,000 people that gas was flowing.
Hundreds showed up at the spigot, carrying plastic jugs and covering their faces with bandanas. A few threw rocks and swung sticks at soldiers who tried to shoo them away. Some fuel collectors brought their children along.
Tlahuelilpan is an agrarian community located 90 minutes by car from the capital and just 8 miles from the state-run Tula oil refinery. It’s surrounded by verdant alfalfa fields and power plant stacks, and is reasonably affluent by rural Mexican standards.
Hidalgo state data shows about half the community lives in moderate poverty, in line with the national average.
At first the gasoline leak was manageable, locals say, emitting a tame fountain of fuel that allowed for filling small buckets one at a time. But as the crowd swelled to more than 600, people became impatient.
That’s when a man rammed a piece of rebar into a patch, according to Irma Velasco, who lives near the alfalfa field where the explosion took place, and gasoline shot 20 feet into the air, like water from a geyser.
A carnival atmosphere took over. Giddy adults soaked in gasoline filled jugs and passed them to runners. Families and friends formed human chains and guard posts to stockpile containers with fuel.
For nearly two hours, more than a dozen soldiers stood guard on the outskirts of the field, warning civilians not to go near. Officials say the soldiers were outnumbered and their instructions were to not intervene.
Only a week earlier, people in a different town had beaten some soldiers who tried to stop them from collecting state-owned fuel.
The smell of gas grew stronger and stronger as thousands of barrels spewed. Those closest to the gusher apparently became delirious, intoxicated by fumes.
Townspeople stumbled about. The night filled with an eerie mist, a mixture of cool mountain air and fine particles of gasoline.
Velasco said she rushed to aid a man she saw staggering along the road and away from the gusher. She removed his gas-drenched clothes to help alleviate the overwhelming stench of toxic fuel.
Then she helped another young man, who described to her how the geyser had erupted.
Cerron was at the heart of the mayhem when he sensed mounting danger.
He pulled a 70-year-old man out of a ditch where gasoline was pooling; the man had passed out from the vapors.
Then Cerron, a student, decided it was time to go home.
“They looked like zombies trying to get all that gasoline out,” Cerron said.
He passed soldiers warning would-be scavengers to stay away. It’s going to explode, they said. And it did. Once home, Cerron turned for one last glance at the gusher. Instead he saw flames.
By Sunday evening the death toll from Friday’s blaze had risen to 85, with another 58 hospitalized, according to federal Health Minister Jorge Alcocer. Dozens more were missing.