Taken from AP
Some 183 homes were affected in a town in central Mexico by explosions that occurred over the weekend as a result of a gas leak at an illegal tap, state authorities reported Tuesday.
In the populous San Pablo Xochimehuacán neighborhood of the central city of Puebla, assessments of the damage caused by the four explosions and fires that occurred on Sunday, which left one dead and 18 injured, continued on Tuesday.
During the presentation of the report, the Secretary of Infrastructure of the state of Puebla, Juan Daniel Gámez, told the press that after studying 80% of the homes in the affected area, it was determined that there are 60 buildings with serious structural damage that caused their total and partial collapse, 68 with moderate damage, and 55 with minor damage.
Gámez stated that state authorities began clearing debris in the so-called "ground zero" area after the military concluded its search for possible additional victims on Monday. The official specified that the debris removal and demolition of partially destroyed homes could take at least two weeks.
For his part, the Secretary of Health of Puebla, José Antonio Martínez, said that the number of injured rose to 18 after a man with severe burns was admitted to a state hospital after initially being admitted to a private center.
Martínez indicated that 15 people remain hospitalized, of whom five are intubated in "very serious" condition and six are in delicate condition, some of them minors.
In the early morning of October 31, four explosions of different magnitudes were recorded in the San Pablo Xochimehuacán neighborhood within a radius of 800 meters as a result of the accumulation of gases that would have come into contact with an electrical transformer, according to the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).
The gas leak occurred at an illegal fuel tap located 3.5 meters deep, said Pemex Logistics Director Javier González del Villar, who added that a tank with an identification similar to that of the local company Hidro Gas was found at the site.
In Mexico, the theft of hydrocarbons, especially oil, has proliferated, and Puebla is one of the most affected states, as it is located between the capital and the oil zone of the Gulf of Mexico.
Criminals are tapping into pipelines despite the risks involved. In January 2019 in Tlahuelilpan, north of Mexico City, more than 130 people died, many because after a fuel leak was detected, they went to fill gasoline containers and were trapped in a fire.
Since taking office in 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has launched a fight against the multi-million dollar business of fuel theft and deployed thousands of soldiers to guard the pipelines.
