A gas plant explosion in Mexico killed 26 and injured 46 in the northern state of Tamaulipas yesterday.
Seven people are still reported missing according to Juan José Suárez Coppell, chief executive of Mexican Petroleum (Pemex), the state company that runs the plant.
“We are looking through the analysis of what happened […] I don’t have any evidence that this incident was voluntary or an attack of any sort. Everything seems to indicate that this was an exceptional accident,” said Suárez Coppel at a joint press conference with Tamaulipas state governor Egidio Torre Cantú.
The explosion took place at 10:45am local time on the outskirts of Reynosa, the state’s largest city situated on the border with the United States.
It is believed the explosion was caused by an accumulation of inflammable gas in the measurement area of the plant; the ensuing fire then took close to three hours to control.
“Everything has been recorded so we will make sure there is an in-depth analysis that will be made public as soon as it is completed, we will get to the bottom of what happened,” emphasised Suárez Coppel.
All fatalities were maintenance workers of which four were Pemex employees and 22 were third party contractors. Twenty-one injured workers are expected to be discharged today, while 18 will remain in the hospital in a stable condition and seven cases are still considered critical.
There have been a number of accidents in similar Pemex facilities over the past few weeks with an explosion injuring four in a gas plant last week and a fire breaking out in another gas plant in Tamaulipas state in August.
A government report released this month showed evidence that accidents at Pemex facilities had gone up by 28% in 2011.
Facebook comments