Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a fund to help victims of Saturday’s oil refinery explosion, whose death toll has now been revised up to 41, with a number still unaccounted for.

The fund of 100m bolívares (US$23m) has been put aside for reconstruction works, compensation for victims, pensions for widows and grants for the children of the deceased to study.

The fund will be jointly administered by the Venezuelan petroleum organisation, PDVSA, and the government of the state of Falcón.

Some 500 houses were affected by the explosion, with more than ten completely lost in the blast. Chávez also announced that for those who had lost their homes, 60 houses were ready for families, with a further 200 promised over the course of the next month.

The president went on to thank all the emergency workers and medical staff who had been working around the clock since the blast.

Firefighters continue to battle with the flames, although the situation is now said to be under control.

The refinery remains closed as a result of the damage caused by the blast, and that, combined with the closing of off-shore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of Tropical Storm Isaac, currently sweeping through the Caribbean, is likely to lead to a spike in the price of oil.

Venezuela experienced one of its worst oil industry related disasters in history as a huge explosion tore through the Amuay refinery on Saturday, killing 39 and injuring at least 80. Amongst those killed were 18 members of the national guard who had entered the refinery after the explosion in an attempt to rescue survivors.

The blast was so strong it threw balls of fire into the air, and ripped windows out of nearby homes, leaving the streets strewn with rubble and debris. A day after the blast, flames reaching over 30m into the air could still be seen. The explosion appears to have been caused by a natural gas leak.

President Hugo Chávez declared three days of national mourning, but said Amuay, Venezuela’s biggest refinery, and one of the biggest in the world, would be up and running again within two days, and assured the country would meet its international fuel commitments.

Amuay is part of the Paraguaná refinery complex based in Punto Fijo in western Venezuela, which also includes the Cardón refinery. Together, they process about 900,000 barrels of crude a day and 200,000 barrels of petrol.

A young man who claimed to have photographed a meteorite falling from the sky before yesterday’s blast has been arrested for perjury. He had claimed to have taken the photograph from his backyard minutes before the explosion in 9 de Abril neighbourhood, in Esteban Echeverría. The picture is now thought to have been doctored.

Experts from the bomb squad Conae are currently investigating the incident and searching for radiation signs. Two houses were completely destroyed and three cars were overturned. The mayor of Esteban Echeverría, Fernando Gray, has stated that 15 houses were damaged, while one woman died and eight other people were injured.

The neighbourhood is shaken by the incident with many still believing that it was caused by a meteorite, despite the young man’s arrest.