“The pain never goes away, you learn to live with him and I think that we learn to live with pain that generated the tragedy in the loss of relatives, because each of the families of Tlahuelilpan were directly or indirectly affected, ”said the mayor of this municipality, Juan Pedro Cruz Frías, in an interview with Notimex.
The afternoon of Friday, January 18 of last year, around 2:20 p.m., elements of the Mexican Army they detected a clandestine fuel outlet in Tlahuelilpan 13 kilometers from the Tula refinery.
Later, at 3:40 p.m. residents began to agglomerate in the area, said three days after what happened the Secretary of Public Security, Alfonso Durazo.
Videos posted by witnesses Y journalists that they were in the area they realized the arrival of people in vehicles loaded with drums and trays where they would store and collect the fuel that minutes later reached a whitish jet of more than six meters high.
In the place the arrival of families was observed (including minors), that with scarves or jackets, covered nose and mouth to collect as much input as possible.
Subsequently, to the first platoon of 25 soldiers who detected the clandestine takeover, another 60 more were joined, in addition to personnel from the Gendarmerie Y Military police.
However, the low number of elements could do little to contain more than 800 settlers which by then were already on site.
In the videos shared on social networks and published by various media, the military can be seen looking at the people who joke while entering the ditch where the fuel pipe.
At 6:20 p.m., two hours and 40 minutes after the Army detected the capture, Mexican oil closed the pipeline and stopped the hydrocarbon pumping.
At 18:20 the pumping is suspended. There is a protocol that establishes when a valve should close and that is when it drops to a certain pressure level. ”
“At 14:30, when military personnel arrive, these valves have an outlet, a minimum leak, it is until the leak is increased and it reaches the level established by the safety parameters, the valves are closed, and this it happens at 18:20, ”Durazo Montaño said.
Only 31 minutes later, at 6:52 p.m., the laughter gave way to the screaming. The pipeline had exploded and the tragedy just started.
The images are hard to forget. Dozens of people ran across the ground with their legs, arms and head wrapped in fire, while in the distance people shouted at them to throw themselves on the ground.
Many others had no time to escape and were swept away by the flames being so close to the explosion.
A anonymous cameraman tried to make an approach to small fires that burned in the distance, were bodies consumed in the fire.
“Help me, I’m dying” was heard saying a man who threw himself at a small puddle that was on the banks of the land.
Impacted by what happened, the ambient sound was filled with cries and screams and the occasional phrase like “You see, you see, you wanted to go get yourself.” Survivors mourned their relatives.
Emergency services began arriving at 8:34 p.m. More than an hour and a half after the explosion came 16 ambulances from the Mexican Red Cross, while the General Directorate of Risks of the Ministry of Health sent medical support to assist 100 injured citizens.
Men with pieces of clothing attached to the skin and half-torn pants walked in shock around the area. According to the investigations, the movement of hundreds of people and the friction of the synthetic clothes they wore, caused the explosion that was controlled at 23:45 h.
“It was something monstrous,” said the mayor of Tlahuelilpan, who considered “victims of lack of opportunities that there are in this country ”to the hundreds of settlers who died and were injured or indirectly affected by the event.
Almost a year after the catastrophe, the mayor said that although the theft of fuel continues in “five percent” in the municipality, unemployment causes that despite the tragedy, many people continue to see in the fuel theft An alternative to survive.
“The issue of opportunities remains totally stagnant in Tlahuelilpan, we cannot fulfill our true function which is generate the conditions so that the inhabitants have a job, ”he said.
In this regard, he requested support from the federal government to promote tourism projects that leave better profits to the vocation of demarcation services.
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