San Juanico Disaster

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54 of these spherical type liquid petroleum gas (LPG) containers exploded into huge fireballs. This killed 500 people and caused severe burns in 5000-7000 others.

At 5:45 pm on November 19, 1984 in San Juanico, (near Mexico City, Mexico), 54 spherical type liquid petroleum gas (LPG) containers exploded into huge fireballs. This was one third of Mexico City's liquid petroleum gas supply. The accident caused a huge series of explosions in one of the storage and distribution plants of PEMEX, killed around 500 to 600 people, and caused severe burns in 5000-7000 others.^[1] It is classified as one of the deadliest tragedies of modern Mexico.

The incident took place in one of the storage and distribution plants for liquid petroleum gas (LPG) on property belonging to the multi-state enterprise, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX).

The origin of the disaster was due to the rupture of a pipe with a diameter of 20 cm. This happened around the 5:30 p.m. The pipe was carrying LP gas from three different refineries to the storage facility near a field of tanks. These areas were composed of 6 and 48 cylinders of different capacities. The overfilling of one reservoir and overpressure in the line of transport return was one of the likely factors that, with the non-functioning of the valves relief deposit overfilling, caused a gas leak for nearly 10 minutes.

Around the 5:40 a.m. this leak led to the formation of a large cloud of flammable vapor about 200 meters by 150 meters in size, which ignited about 100 metres from the vanishing point, where he contacted some point flammable, as could be any torch lit at the ground level. This led to generate a fire of major proportions that affect first time to 10 homes surrounding the plant; At 5:45, a small area was burnt generating a ball of fire (BLEVE) of about 300 metres in diameter and 300 approximately meters high, we continue multiple explosions chain generated by other areas 4 and 15 cylinders, about an hour and a half culminating in a less violent events until around 10 am. Such was the heat radiation that only 2% of the bodies recovered were able to be recognized.

[edit] Other versions

Other versions stated that the accident was due to the explosion of a vehicle carrying oil and spread to a tank of gas. Those responsible for the factory even said that the explosion originated in a private factory nearby.