Mystery persists in Mexico oil firm blast after 33 die

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – The cause of a deadly explosion at the headquarters of Mexico’s state-owned oil firm remained shrouded in mystery Friday, with authorities investigating if it was an accident or an attack 24 hours later.

As the toll jumped to 33 dead and 121 injured, government and Pemex company officials had yet to pinpoint what was behind the blast that ripped through the annex of the firm’s Mexico City skyscraper Thursday afternoon.

A Mexican federal policeman stands guard next to the damaged building inside the premises of state-owned Mexican oil giant Pemex in Mexico City. AFP

The blast erupted amid a debate over plans by President Enrique Pena Nieto to modernize Pemex and attract more outside investments to the old state monopoly, which has suffered deadly industrial accidents as recently as last year.

“The government is determined to find the truth in this incident, whatever it is; whether it was an accident, whether it was carelessness, whether it was an attack,” Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told a news conference.

“We don’t want to leave anything to the imagination,” he said as rescuers wound down the search, with rescuers focusing on two final locations. The last body was pulled out of the rubble at around noon.

Earlier, Pemex director general Emilio Lozoya Austin said the explosion appeared to have been an accident, though he insisted that all lines of investigation remained open.

“It appears that this is what one can observe as part of what experts refer to as an accident,” he told the Televisa network.

A civil protection spokesman told AFP Thursday that witnesses had reported a gas build-up in an electricity supply room, but it was unclear whether it was the source of the disaster.

Pemex had indicated before the blast was confirmed that the building was evacuated due to an electrical failure.

Murillo Karam said there was no evidence of fire in the victims or debris. Investigators from the army, navy, federal police, prosecutor’s office and two foreign firms were involved in the probe.

Hundreds of firefighters, police and soldiers aided by dogs dug through rubble for almost 24 hours straight, with the help of floodlights and cranes after the blast caused the mezzanine of the annex to collapse.

Thousands of people work in the Pemex complex, but officials said the area hit by the blast has four levels and housed 200 to 250 employees.

The government said two more locations were to be searched after they sifted through 39. Mexican Red Cross coordinator Isaac Oxenhaut had indicated earlier that the mission to rescue survivors or search for bodies was over.

“We did a sweep with other organisations, we brought dogs again,” he told reporters. “We rule out there being any trapped victims.”

Soldiers spent the day clearing mounds of debris from the area, which was strewn with piles of concrete, computers and office furniture.