Anger Mounts as Guadalajara Asks ‘Why?’

As public rage against the government grew Thursday, the governor of Jalisco state said Guadalajara officials had investigated underground gas leaks and dismissed any danger of explosions just hours before a chain of blasts killed at least 180 people and injured more than 1,400.

State and federal officials continued their investigation into the cause of Wednesday’s disaster while rescue crews dug through layers of rubble with shovels and buckets in search of more victims. They held little hope of finding anyone alive.

Officials said the gas leaks were under control, but they continued to evacuate neighborhoods around industries suspected of spilling the still-unidentified gas into the city’s sewage system. They called the measure “a precaution.”

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari toured the stricken area and ordered the federal attorney general to issue a complete report on the tragedy, including “a clear delineation of responsibilities,” by Sunday.

Guillermo Cosio Vidaurri, governor of Jalisco state, of which Guadalajara is the capital, accompanied the president and told reporters that city firefighters and water and sewage officials had measured extremely high levels of toxic fumes spewing from the municipal drainage system Tuesday night but found them to be decreasing by Wednesday morning.

“They determined that it was a tolerable level and that it did not present a danger,” Cosio said. “They decided not to evacuate.”

Neither Guadalajara Mayor Enrique Dau Flores nor his spokesman could be reached for comment.

But pressure started to take its toll in the city government. Late Thursday, the state government announced that Guadalajara’s sewer system chief, Alberto Limon, had resigned. Limon was among the city officials who were criticized for not evacuating residents.

The series of blasts, beginning about 10 a.m. Wednesday, demolished a 26-block area of southeastern Guadalajara. The blasts ripped 15-foot ravines through asphalt streets, blew automobiles onto rooftops and overturned semitrailer trucks as if they were toys.

Cosio said that more than 1,200 houses were destroyed and that the city’s water and drainage system sustained at least $60 million worth of damage. He said he could not quantify damages to streets, automobiles, electrical or telephone systems or other structures.

The governor said the death toll had risen to more than 180 and that hospitals had treated 1,450 people injured in the blast.

But the casualty count was still imprecise. The attorney general of Jalisco state, Leobardo Larios Guzman, said the death toll was 202. But the Red Cross said various rescue agencies had been retrieving bodies and that the count had yet not been coordinated.

Irate residents of the disaster area said they had repeatedly complained to city and federal officials about gas fumes since Sunday but that their pleas were lost in a tangle of bureaucracy.

“We were on top of a time bomb and didn’t know it,” said Raul Hugo, 25. “We started calling everywhere, and one department just told us to call another. Why didn’t they evacuate?”

Those who lost their homes to the explosions railed at city and state officials as well as at industries in the area.

“This is a disgrace,” said Alicia Ramirez, 39, as she stood on a street corner with a television set and a few other belongings she had salvaged from her ruined home. “The governor--I don’t know who’s responsible. They just weren’t paying attention.”

A team of 15 investigators from the state attorney general’s office, meanwhile, scoured the installations and drainage systems in dozens of industries near the area of the explosions searching for the source of the gas leak.

Government officials refused to comment on the possible source or the kind of gas that caused the explosions until the federal attorney general issues his report.

“We still have no basis on which to determine guilt or responsibility,” said Cosio, the state governor.

The two sources most widely reported to be the cause of the spill were the La Central cooking oil factory and a storage facility belonging to Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, the state oil monopoly.

On Wednesday, Pemex denied any responsibility for the disaster and said the explosions were caused by highly volatile liquid hexane leaked from La Central. On Thursday, Pemex issued a bulletin saying company officials had opened its Guadalajara facility to investigators and were cooperating with the attorney general “to clarify these regrettable events.” The company did not repeat its charges against La Central.

The Guadalajara daily Siglo 21 reported that Pemex technicians had detected gas fumes around the storage facility and collected a black, toxic liquid from its sewage pipes, but the report could not be independently confirmed.

La Central managers also denied responsibility for the spill and said the government has yet to prove the gas was hexane, which is used to extract edible oil from seeds. They said the company uses about 500 gallons of hexane a day but that virtually none of it is dumped into their waste water.

“We know what we are doing, and we have control of our inventory,” said Jose Morales Doria, a member of La Central’s board of directors. “It is practically impossible that they could tell us we are dumping such a quantity of hexane as to produce an explosion of this magnitude.” He said that “99.9%” of the hexane used by the company evaporates during processing.

Guadalajara’s sewage and industrial waste flow together in a single drainage system under the densely populated capital, which is Mexico’s second-largest city, with 3 million people.

La Central’s industrial waste is carried into the drainage system through private pipes, Morales said, adding that those pipes did not explode and were not damaged. The company waste enters city pipes about three to five blocks away from one of the blast points.

Morales said the plant was shut down for vacation the week before Easter and started operations again Monday, a day after several residents said they first noticed the smell of gas. He said the company shut down operations again Tuesday night at the behest of city water and sewage officials who were trying to identify the source of the leak.

At that time, city officials took samples of La Central’s waste, but Morales said they have not yet advised the company whether they found hexane or any gas.

Wednesday’s destruction was the worst gas-related disaster in Mexico since November, 1984, when more than 400 people were killed in an explosion at a liquid petroleum gas depot on the outskirts of Mexico City.

Many of those who lost their homes spent Thursday in an agonizing search for relatives.

Ansi Ramirez, 23, wept and trembled as she surveyed the wreckage of her home. Both she and her 2-year-old daughter escaped with only scratches and bruises. But deeper scars remain.

“I can’t sleep,” she said. “Many of my neighbors were killed.”