The death toll from a Mexican petrochemical plant explosion has risen to 24, and more causalities are feared as rescue and clean-up efforts continue following the April 20 incident in the port community of Coatzacoalcos.
Eight people remain missing and 13 workers were in critical condition after a leak at the Pajaritos complex’s chlorinate 3 plant, operated by Petroleos Mexicanos and Mexichem SAB, caused a blast that sent a massive plume of smoke and noxious gases into the air of the town on the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex’s Chief Executive Officer Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya, who traveled to Coatzacoalcos following the accident, said in a press conference late Thursday that the state-owned oil company will carry out a thorough investigation with authorities to determine the cause of the explosion.
“There is only one priority and that is to give attention to the families,” Juan Pablo del Valle, chairman of the board of Mexichem, said in an interview last night in Coatzacoalcos. “We will have a deep and thorough investigation, and as soon as we have that we will be very open in explaining to everyone what happened.”
Mexichem, which owns 54 percent of the joint venture with Pemex, will probably discuss the extent of the losses from the accident during the company’s first quarter earnings call on April 28, del Valle said.
Hundreds of people, many in facemasks, gathered outside of the plant Thursday to be allowed inside to identify the bodies of family members and friends. Others, such as Maria Guadalupe Sanchez, 48, waited at the public hospital in Coatzacoalcos, where her brother Dionisio, a boiler operator at the plant, is in intensive care.
“He wasn’t even meant to be working that shift,” Sanchez said, holding back tears. “He was covering for his colleagues because no one else could do the technical work. It’s in God’s hands now.”
Guillermo Cosmea Abrajam, a Pemex worker at the plant who was evacuated, camped outside in front of the emergency ward of the IMSS hospital in Coatzacoalcos shortly after the blast, alongside droves of other victims’ family members.
“It could have been avoided,” he said angrily. “This happened because of negligence.”
