A pipeline in Mexico exploded while people were stealing fuel from it, near where a similar blast happened this month left 115 dead, an official said.
The new blast struck Monday in the central state of Hidalgo, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the site of the explosion 10 days ago.
State governor Omar Fayad said there were no initial reports of anyone being injured in the latest explosion, in the town of San Agustin Tlaxiaca.
Fayad said people had been “milking” the pipeline. Media broadcast footage of large flames billowing out of a punctured section of the line.
A similar blast on January 18 in the town of Tlahuelilpan happened after thieves punctured a gasoline pipeline and up to 700 people showed up to fill jugs and other containers.
Illegal pipeline taps are a dangerous but lucrative business whose players include powerful drug cartels and insiders from the state oil company Pemex.
Pilfered fuel costs on average about half the price of regular gasoline. It is estimated that such theft costs the country three billion dollars a year.
In 1988, a pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria, killed 700 people. The resulting fire burned for nearly a week.
Nigeria is an oil-rich country on the west coast of Africa. The oil fields are controlled by several multi-national corporations in cooperation with the Nigerian government. Very little of the proceeds from oil exports reaches the average citizen of the country and millions of people live in abject poverty. In fact, gas pipelines run right through impoverished villages.
One such pipeline ran through the town of Jesse, where it became commonplace for residents to steal oil from the pipeline to supplement their meager incomes. This was known as “bunkering” and was taking place on October 18, when a helicopter was dispatched to disperse the people assembled at the pipeline. Just after the helicopter arrived, a massive fireball shot up 100 feet into the sky. The exact cause of the explosion remains unknown.
The pipeline explosion incinerated hundreds of people instantly. Others died from agonizing burn injuries. The fire burned so hot that rescue workers could not approach the scene for six days. Meanwhile, survivors, some suffering from terrible burns, were afraid to go to the hospital for fear that they would be charged with theft or be blamed for causing the fire.
Finally, specialists from Houston, Texas, arrived with firefighting foam that helped the firefighters extinguish the blaze. Heavier security surrounding the pipelines was instituted in the wake of this disaster.
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