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Pemex headquarters blast leaves at least 25 dead in Mexico City
Pemex headquarters blast leaves at least 32 dead in Mexico City
(about 7 hours later)
Rescuers are searching the rubble for survivors and authorities have promised a thorough investigation after an office building blast killed 25 people and injured 101 at the headquarters of Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos.
Rescuers are searching for survivors and authorities have promised a thorough investigation after an office building blast killed 32 people and injured 121 at the headquarters of Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos.
The cause of the basement explosion in an administrative building next to the 51-floor Pemex tower in Mexico City remained a mystery early on Friday, with the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, urging people not to speculate. Theories ranged from an electrical fire to an air conditioning problem to a possible attack.
The cause of the basement explosion in an administrative building next to the 51-story Pemex tower in Mexico City remained a mystery, with the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, urging people not to speculate. Early signs pointed to an accident in an area that housed electrical and air-conditioning equipment, according to a government official.
"We have no conclusive report on the reason," Peña Nieto told reporters. "We will work to get to the bottom of the investigation to find out, first, what happened, and if there are people responsible in this case, that we apply the full weight of the law against them."
Questions abound about a possible attack on Mexico's most important installation just as the government is talking about a controversial energy reform and opening up Pemex to outside investors.
Some 46 people remained hospitalised after the Thursday afternoon blast, some gravely injured and others with cuts, fractures and burns. Authorities said the dead were 17 women and eight men.
"We have no conclusive report on the reason," Peña Nieto told reporters. "We will work to get to the bottom of the investigation to find out, first, what happened … and if there are people responsible in this case, that we apply the full weight of the law against them."
More than 500 firefighters, soldiers and rescue workers dug through chunks of concrete with dogs, trucks and a Pemex crane.
Pemex director Emilio Lozoya said 52 people remained hospitalised and survivors and bodies still may be found in the rubble.
The interior minister, Miguel Osorio Chong, said it was uncertain if any of the roughly 10,000 people who work in the five-building headquarters were still trapped, but that the search would continue. The explosion occurred at about 3.45pm local time, just as the administrative shift was about to end. It hit the basement and first two floors, which rescuers said all collapsed on to each other.
More than 500 firefighters, soldiers and rescue workers dug through chunks of concrete, aided by dogs, trucks and a Pemex crane.
"There is a lot of risk," a rescuer, German Vázquez García, said of working on the site.
The explosion occurred at about 3:45pm, just as the administrative shift was about to end. It hit the basement and three floors, where as many as 250 people work, Lozoya said. The floors collapsed in the 14-story administrative building at the headquarters office complex, where 10,000 people work daily. Lozoya said about 1,700 people work in the building affected.
Pemex first said it had evacuated the tower and 14-floor administrative building because of a problem with the electrical system. The company later tweeted that the attorney general's office was investigating the explosion.
"There is a lot of risk," rescuer German Vázquez Garcia said of working on the site.
Ana Vargas Palacio was distraught as she searched for her missing husband, Daniel García García, 36, who works in the building where the explosion occurred. She said she last talked to him a couple hours earlier.
Pemex first said it had evacuated the tower and administrative building because of a problem with the electrical system. The company later tweeted that the attorney general's office was investigating the explosion.
"I called his phone many times, but a young man answered and told me he found the phone in the debris," Vargas said. The two have an 11-year-old daughter. His mother, Gloria García Castaneda, collapsed on a friend's arm, crying "My son. My son."
Gabriela Espinoza, 50, a Pemex secretary for 29 years, was on the second floor of the tower when she said she heard two loud explosions and a third smaller one.
Gabriela Espinoza, 50, a Pemex secretary for 29 years, was on the second floor of the tower when she said she heard two loud explosions and a third smaller one.
"There was a very loud roar. It was very ugly," she said.
"There was a very loud roar. It was very ugly," she said.
Espinoza's co-worker, Tomás Rivera, 32, worked on the ground floor where the explosion occurred and said the force knocked him to the basement, fracturing his wrist and jaw. The injured were taken to two Pemex hospitals and other facilities, including the Red Cross hospital in the Polanco neighbourhood near the oil company's office headquarters, where relatives huddled in the waiting room for news of their loved ones. Some walked out of meetings with the hospital social worker joyous, while others came out crying.
Espinoza's co-worker, Tomas Rivera, 32, worked on the ground floor in the building where the explosion occurred and said the force knocked him to the basement, fracturing his wrist and jaw. The injured were taken to two Pemex hospitals and other facilities, including the Red Cross hospital in the Polanco neighbourhood near the oil company's headquarters. Relatives huddled in the waiting room for news of their loved ones. Some walked out of meetings with the hospital social worker joyous, while others came out crying.
"We were talking and all of sudden we heard an explosion with white smoke and glass falling from the windows," said María Concepción Andrade, 42, who lives on the same block as the Pemex building. "People started running from the building covered in dust. A lot of pieces were flying."
Pemex, created as a state-owned company in 1938, has nearly 150,000 employees, with $111bn in sales. Peña Nieto, who took office in December, has made Pemex reform the centre of his platform, with a plan to pump new investment into a company whose profits feed much of Mexico's federal budget, but which has fallen behind other oil companies in production, technology and exploration.
Streets surrounding the building were closed as evacuees wandered around, and rescue crews loaded the injured into ambulances.
Shortly before the explosion, operations director Carlos Murrieta reported via Twitter that the company had reduced its accident rate in recent years. Most Pemex accidents have occurred at pipeline and refinery installations.
Pemex, created as a state-owned company in 1938, has nearly 150,000 employees and in 2011 produced about 2.5m barrels of crude oil a day, according to its website, with $111bn in sales. Peña Nieto, who took office in December, has made Pemex reform the centre of his platform, with a plan to pump new investment into a company whose profits feed much of Mexico's federal budget, but which has fallen behind other oil companies in production, technology and exploration.
A fire at a pipeline metering centre in north-east Mexico near the Texas border killed 30 workers in September, the largest-single toll in at least a decade for the company.
Shortly before the explosion, the operations director Carlos Murrieta reported via Twitter that the company had reduced its accident rate in recent years. Most Pemex accidents have occurred at pipeline and refinery installations.
A fire at a pipeline metering centre in north-east Mexico near the Texas border killed 30 workers in September, the largest single toll in at least a decade for the company.
