Four LP gas tanks exploded in the state of Puebla Thursday morning, the state Civil Protection chief said, causing a huge fireball to shoot into the sky and prompting the evacuation of approximately 2,000 people.
The tanks exploded on a property in Tepeaca, a small city located about 35 kilometers east of Puebla city. No deaths were immediately reported, but three people were injured and taken to a hospital for treatment, according to the newspaper La Jornada.
Bernabé López Santos, head of the Puebla Civil Protection authority (PC Puebla), said in a video message that four “tanks of gas” had exploded inside a warehouse on a property in Tepeaca. He didn’t identify the cause of the explosion.
PC Puebla initially reported that four gas tankers, rather than tanks, had exploded. López said that gas tankers were found in another warehouse on the same property. Photos appeared to show that at least one heavy vehicle had caught fire, if not actually exploded.
PC Puebla said in a post to X that “approximately 2,000 people were evacuated from a hospital, schools and neighboring homes as a preventive measure” after the explosion, which was caught on camera and disseminated on social media.
In another X post, PC Puebla said that 25 state Civil Protection workers, 29 state police and five municipal Civil Protection employees were working to cool down the “affected units” and secure the perimeters of the disaster site.
Photos showed that firefighters were also on the scene. They reportedly brought the blaze under control.
La Jornada reported that there was speculation that gas tankers on the property were used to store and transport stolen gas. López indicated that the “relevant authorities” would conduct an investigation into the use of the gas tankers found on the site.
With reports from La Jornada, El Universal and Aristegui Noticias
