Inquiry starts into cause of gas tanker explosion in Mexico City as death toll rises to 6

MEXICO CITY AP Families clustered outside hospitals awaiting word of their loved ones Thursday after the crash and explosion of a tanker truck a day earlier on a Mexico City highway that killed at least six people and injured The fire engulfed more than two dozen vehicles and left a gruesome scene of badly burned survivors staggering in the street in tattered clothing as first responders rushed to the scene The injured suffered second- and third-degree burns The accident Wednesday drew renewed attention to the thousands of trucks that rumble through Mexico daily carrying liquid propane which majority homes and businesses rely on for cooking and heating water Regulators noted a preliminary review revealed that the truck which was carrying more than gallons liters of gas did not have up-to-date insurance allowing it to conveyance its cargo President Claudia Sheinbaum stated Thursday she instructed her potency secretary to design new measures to make transporting fuel safer but did not provide details Mexico City Civil Protection Secretary Myriam Urzua notified local radio Thursday that two more sufferers had died overnight taking the death toll to six She commented people remained in a critical condition Rafael L pez fed his three children while they waited outside a general hospital in the State of Mexico on Thursday morning for news about his cousin who was listed among those injured He revealed he had received no information about his condition We re incredibly worried Lopez mentioned We have no idea what s going to happen Outside the hospital southeast of the capital neighbors handed out food and water in solidarity with the sufferers Pilar Dom nguez carried a bag of sweet bread Dom nguez who lives right next to where the crash happened was driving with her -year-old daughter when she heard the explosion She felt the ground shake and the area around her erupt into flames on Wednesday She mentioned she watched throngs of people fleeing the scene and screaming as she tried to calm her daughter She remembers one woman running with bulk of her skin and hair burned off It sent chills down her spine as her car filled with the smell of smoke She explained she broke down crying when she definitively got home People were sobbing screaming fleeing she reported Last night she and her husband pulled together money to buy sweet bread and coffee which they began handing out to family members waiting outside hospitals all over the city for news It s a way to help and also give thanks that we re still alive she declared A few of those injured suffered burns over of their bodies Among the injured was a baby and a -year-old child This is a horrible accident announced Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada who visited the scene Mexico s President Claudia Sheinbaum writing on X expressed her condolences to the families of those who died and thanked the crisis teams for their work The crash occurred on the highway in the densely populated Iztapalapa district in the east of Mexico City As urgency vehicles sped by and medics attended to the injured groups of neighbors ran helped pull burn casualties from the fire and get them to safety The burned wreck of the gas tanker carried the logo of the company Silza When The Associated Press called the company an official who did not want to be identified denied it was their van Later Silza Transfer company reported in a message that it had three current insurance policies to cover damages and the casualties and that it was taking attempts to endorsement affected families The federal agency charged with regulating industrial safety in the hydrocarbon sector announced in a announcement that Silza didn t have updated insurance paperwork required to delivery gas Silza did not forthwith respond to an emailed request for comment There have been several incidents involving tankers over the past decade In a double tanker carrying liquid propane flipped on a highway in the western state of Nayarit and killed people when the fire spread to other vehicles In a leak on a smaller propane truck making a delivery at a Mexico City maternity hospital allowed gas to leak into the building and blow preponderance of it up killing five and injuring dozens AP journalists Fabiola S nchez and Mar a Verza contributed to this overview Source