At least five people died in Mexico on Tuesday in a refinery fire caused by adverse weather conditions, state oil company Pemex said. AFP informs about it, writes TASR.
- At least five people have died in a fire at the Dos Bocas refinery in Mexico.
- The fire was caused by a combination of heavy rains and a subsequent oil spill.
- One employee of the state oil company Pemex is among the victims.
- The flames at the Gulf Coast refinery were extinguished in two hours.
- Pemex refineries have suffered several fatal industrial accidents in recent years.
The fire at the Dos Bocas refinery in the state of Tabasco in the southeast of the country was caused by heavy rains. There was an oil leak and it subsequently caught fire, the state-owned company said. “Unfortunately, five people lost their lives, including one Pemex employee,” she added. However, the company did not say how the raw material caught fire.
The fire was reported shortly after sunrise near the fence surrounding the hydrocarbon storage facilities. The flames were extinguished two hours later “they do not pose a risk to the population or to workers,” the company said.
Videos have surfaced on social media showing an oil refinery located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico engulfed in flames during a torrential downpour. Construction of the Dos Bocas refinery began under the previous president, Andres Manuel López Obrador. The project was accompanied by complications and high construction costs, which also caused a delay in its launch. In recent years, Pemex refineries have been hit by several accidents, several of which were fatal.
