Thousands of Mexicans Flee Oil Tank Fire

Fire broke out Tuesday at an oil tank farm and threatened to ignite millions of gallons of gasoline in a densely populated area.

At least 20,000 Mexicans fled their homes and one estimate said as many as 200,000 were evacuated.

No casualties were reported, the local Red Cross said. By Tuesday evening, there were reports that the blaze in the city of Chihuahua was under control.

The fire apparently was limited to one storage tank, but there are 15 tanks at the site.

For much of the day, a spiral of fire and smoke soared more than 150 feet above the oil-products storage area of the government oil monopoly Pemex in the northern residential area of Chihuahua, a state capital in northern Mexico with 550,000 people. The capital of Chihuahua, the largest of Mexico’s 31 states, lies 233 miles south of the Texas border at El Paso.

Sergio Armando Lopez, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government, said that the fire was under control and that experts from outside the city were arriving.

Ignited by Spark

The government news agency Notimex quoted the fire department’s official report as saying the cause of the fire was leaking gas ignited by a spark.

Reporters at the newspaper Novedades de Chihuahua put the number who left their homes at 20,000.

Notimex quoted Mario Perez, commander of the local fire department, as saying that soldiers, police and volunteers evacuated more than 100,000 people from a two-mile radius around the plant.

Later, Notimex gave its own estimate of 200,000 people evacuated and said hundreds of soldiers and rescue workers helped in the effort.

Notimex said the storage tanks were to have been moved to another location months ago, but the new facilities had not been completed. People living near the tank farm have protested its presence, the agency said.

30,000-Barrel Tank

Pemex headquarters in Mexico City said its initial report was that a petroleum derivatives tank with capacity of 30,000-barrels--1,260,000 gallons--exploded at 11:20 a.m. local time.

Red Cross radio dispatcher Olga Rojo said efforts to control the blaze were hampered by a scarcity of water. Much of northern Mexico is suffering from drought.

On Nov. 19, 1984, more than 500 people were killed at an explosion of storage tanks owned by Pemex in San Juan Ixhuatepec, a working class neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Mexico City.