At least four dead and 90 injured in gas tanker explosion in Mexico

The explosion of a gas tanker on Wednesday caused a devastating fire in the eastern edge of Mexico City, leaving at least four people dead and 90 injured, according to the latest preliminary report. The head of the capital’s government, Clara Brugada, said that 19 of the injured were in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns.

According to images from local media and passersby, the flames from the blast reached at least 30 meters high (100 feet) in the vicinity of the Concordia bridge, near the boundaries of the capital with the municipalities of Iztapalapa and Chalco. The truck was carrying more than 13,000 gallons (49,500 liters) of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) on a major city highway when it apparently tipped over, according to the preliminary investigation. The incident took place at 2.30 p.m.

Juan Manuel Pérez Cova, Mexico City’s fire chief, has confirmed that the fire resulting from the blast has been completely extinguished. Around 30 vehicles that were near the site of the explosion were also burned. Authorities said the driver of the truck was “in critical condition but alive.”

According to Pérez Cova, this is one of the largest explosions in the city since 2015, when a gas leak from a truck caused an explosion and fire at the Cuajimalpa Maternity Hospital, an incident that left seven victims, including three babies, and dozens injured. Earlier this week, Mexico experienced another major road accident after a double-decker bus carrying people to the capital was slammed by a freight train.

Videos are circulating on social media showing how the shockwave from the fire began to engulf the surrounding vehicles and reached the second level of the highway interchange. Alejandro Velázquez was traveling on a trolleybus from Constitución to Santa Marta when he saw the flames advancing toward the vehicle. “The driver wouldn’t open the door [to let us escape]. The flames rose, I threw myself face down, and I felt the flames touch my head,” he told local media.

Another image shows Alicia Mateos, a woman who left the scene of the incident on foot after protecting and saving her two-year-old granddaughter with her own body. Alicia’s daughter lamented what had happened: “Right now they tell us she’s okay. That her whole body is anesthetized, but she has burns on her face, arm, and legs. My mom is in intensive care. Do everything possible to save her. She shouldn’t have been there.”

Karen Millán saw her neighbor Alicia Mateos leave her house on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. The 50-year-old woman works as a ticket inspector on the minibuses that stop near the Concordia bridge in Iztapalapa, in the southeast of Mexico City. Millán saw the tragedy on the news, and recognized Mateos among the photos of the injured. The woman was still carrying her granddaughter Azuleth, whom she used to take to work with her. The neighbor managed to reach General Hospital 53 through the gridlocked traffic, where Mateos and another 15 injured people had been taken. “She has burns over 90% of her body, but she managed to save the baby in her arms,” Millán recounts.

At the Iztapalapa Regional Hospital, Sara Martínez has been waiting outside for four hours for news of her aunt, Lucía Martínez, 42. She says that when she saw the videos of the explosion on TikTok, she recognized one of the women running for help from the fire, wearing a white T-shirt and fuchsia pants. It was her aunt Lucía, who works at a laundry in the area. “She’s not on the lists [of admitted patients], but you can see her disappearing into the flames in the videos,” she says. Her cousins are looking for her in other hospitals, but they still don’t know anything about her whereabouts.

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