The blaze at the Dos Bocas refinery began after heavy rain caused an oil spill. Photo / Yuri Cortez, AFP
The blaze at the Dos Bocas refinery began after heavy rain caused an oil spill. Photo / Yuri Cortez, AFP
At least five people have been killed in Mexico in a fire at an oil refinery which was sparked by poor weather, the state oil company Pemex said.
The blaze in the Dos Bocas complex, a flagship industrial project of the current left-leaning government, was set off by heavy rainsin the southeastern state of Tabasco, leading to an oil spill that then caught fire, Pemex said.
“Unfortunately, five people lost their lives, among them a Pemex employee,” the company added.
It reported the fire at sunrise near the fence ringing a storage facility for hydrocarbons.
The flames were extinguished two hours later and now “don’t represent a risk for the population or the workers”, the firm said.
Videos circulating on social media showed the oil facility, located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, devoured by the inferno amid a torrential downpour.
The Dos Bocas refinery’s construction began under the administration of the previous President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018-2024). The project was marked by setbacks and outsized building costs that delayed its opening.
Multiple accidents have rocked Pemex refineries in recent years, including several that were fatal.
