The death toll in a Mexican oil pipeline explosion has jumped to 66, after a horror fireball engulfed a crowd gathering gasoline from an illegal pipeline tap.
On Saturday morning, forensic experts grimly attempted to separate and count charred heaps of corpses after the massive fireball erupted in a small town in the central Mexico state of Hidalgo.
More than 85 other people were listed as missing, as relatives of the deceased and onlookers gathered around the scene of carnage.
Just a few feet from where the pipeline passed through an alfalfa field, the dead seem to have fallen in heaps, perhaps as they stumbled over each other or tried to help one another in the moments after a geyser of gasoline shot into the air Friday.
Aerial view of the scene where a massive blaze was triggered by an illegal pipeline tap in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state
People gather at the site of a ruptured pipeline in Mexico on Friday prior to an explosion that killed at least 66
People wait in front of a wall of fire after an explosion of an illegal tap on Mexican oil company Pemex's pipeline in Tlahuilipan
People are watching the fire at the scene of a massive blaze from a fuel pipeline on Friday night
Soldiers stand guard in front of a wall of fire after an explosion of an illegal tap on Mexican oil company Pemex's pipeline
Firefighters are working at extinguishing the fire at the scene of a massive pipeline blaze in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state
Soldiers guard the area by an oil pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico on Friday night
The leak was caused by an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 62 miles north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.
Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5pm Central.
Video footage from prior to the explosion showed dozens of people in an almost festive atmosphere gathered in a field where a duct had been breached by fuel thieves.
Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames. The duct carries fuel, apparently gasoline, from the Gulf coast to the Mexico City area.
The government said soldiers reached the scene after Pemex detected the illegal tap, but could not secure the area before the explosion.
'At some point there were too many people there and the army and military personnel withdrew to avoid problems,' Public Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told broadcaster Televisa. 'It was just as they were withdrawing that the explosion occurred.'
Members of the Mexican Army work at the site of a pipeline explosion in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state
Rescuers work at the site of a pipeline explosion in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico on Saturday
Mexican soldiers deploy at the scene of a massive pipeline blaze that killed at least 66 who were gathering fuel from a leak
Footage showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze.
Screaming people ran from the explosion, some themselves burning and waving their arms.
On Saturday, several of the dead lay on their backs, their arms stretched out in agony.
Some seemed to have covered their chests in a last attempt to protect themselves from the flames; another few black-charred corpses seemed to embrace each other in death.
Lost shoes were scattered around the scorched field, as were plastic jugs and jerry cans that the victims had carried to gather spilling fuel.
'Ay, no, where is my son?' wailed Hugo Olvera Estrada, whose 13-year-old son, Hugo Olvera Bautista, was at the spot where the fire erupted. Wrapped in a blanket outside a clinic, the man had already gone to six local hospitals looking for his child.
Staff of Pemex, Petroleos Mexicanos, works the area of a oil pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state on Saturday
A massive fireball that engulfed people scooping up fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed at least 66 people and badly burned others. Pemex staff are seen working the scene
A group of rescuers wait at the scene of a massive blaze that broke out at an illegal pipeline tap in central Mexico
An injured person is transferred to a helicopter near the town of Tepotzotlan, after a leaking gas pipeline triggered a blaze
After returning home from middle school yesterday, his father recounted, the boy went to join the crowd scooping up gasoline. Olvera Estrada believed he was influenced by older and supposedly wise men from the town of about 20,000. 'The older men brought him,' he said.
The tragedy came just three weeks after new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft gangs that have drilled dangerous, illegal taps into pipelines an astounding 12,581 times in the first 10 months of 2018, an average of about 42 per day.
In an early morning press conference Saturday, Lopez Obrador vowed to continue the fight against the $3 billion-per-year illegal fuel theft industry.
'Far from stopping the fight ... against fuel theft, it's going to become stronger, we'll continue until we've eradicated these practices,' Lopez Obrador said.
'We are going to eradicate that which not only causes material damages, it is not only what the nation loses by this illegal trade, this black market of fuel, but the risk, the danger, the loss of human lives,' he said.
Villagers argue with the military to let them go to look for their missing relatives after an explosion in a pipeline belonging to Mexican oil company PEMEX in Tlahuelilpan, Mexico
Forensic technicians work at the site where a fuel pipeline ruptured by suspected oil thieves exploded
A forensic technician removes a body from the site where a fuel pipeline ruptured by suspected oil thieves exploded
The tragedy came just three weeks after new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft gangs. Pictured above, forensic technicians remove bodies from the scene of the explosion
A forensic technician tags a body at the site where a fuel pipeline ruptured by suspected oil thieves exploded
Forensic technicians grimly worked the scene on Saturday morning, tagging bodies and removing them from the area
The war against fuel theft was a theme repeated by people in Tlahuelilpan, which is crossed by pipelines and located just a few miles from a refinery.
'What happened here should serve as an example for the whole nation to unite behind the fight that the president is carrying out against this ill,' said municipal health director Jorge Aguilar Lopez.
Another pipeline burst into flames earlier Friday in the neighboring state of Queretaro as a result of another illegal tap. Pemex said the fire near the city of San Juan del Rio was 'in an unpopulated area and there is no risk to human beings.'
In December 2010, authorities also blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.
That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles wide in San Martin Texmelucan.
Lopez Obrador launched the offensive against illegal taps soon after taking office December 1, deploying 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (center) arrives in Tlahuelilpan early on Saturday, after a leaking gas pipeline triggered a blaze in Hidalgo state, Mexico
Obrador's controversial government crackdown to fight fuel theft has led to severe gasoline and diesel shortages across much of the country. Seen on Friday, cars line up at a Pemex station in Jalisco state amid the fuel shortage
Family members of a victim cry when recognizing the body of a loved one after an explosion in a pipeline belonging to Mexican oil company PEMEX in Tlahuelilpan, Mexico
Forensic experts working in the area an oil pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico on Saturday
His administration also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. There aren't enough trucks, however, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.
In Tlahuelilpan, a long, chilling list of the missing was taped outside the window of the local clinic, where dozens of relatives waited for news in their search for loved ones.
Marciel Cervantes fears his brother, Isaac Aurelio Cervantes, is among those lost in Friday's blast. He found the 26-year-old's car parked on the road next to the field, and said his brother hasn't answered his cellphone.
'The people already know what they're getting into with this,' he said as he wrapped a blanket tightly around himself against the cold. 'But they don't understand.'
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https://hienalouca.com/2019/01/19/death-toll-in-mexico-oil-pipeline-explosion-jumps-to-66/
Main photo article The death toll in a Mexican oil pipeline explosion has jumped to 66, after a horror fireball engulfed a crowd gathering gasoline from an illegal pipeline tap.
On Saturday morning, forensic experts grimly attempted to separate and count charred heaps of corpses after the massive fireball erupted...
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Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
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