Mexican Crews Try to Contain Fuel Fire
SAN JUAN IXHUATEPEC, Mexico — Pumping water and building walls of mud and sand, firefighters struggled in vain Tuesday to douse flames at a fuel storage complex where three oil tanks exploded.
An oil worker and a firefighter died of burns from the blaze, which turned 4.2 million gallons of fuel into a tower of black smoke over this industrial suburb of Mexico City.
The tanks exploded Monday afternoon, a blast triggered by work being done on a faulty valve. More than 24 hours later, firefighters were still on the scene, building the sand-and-mud dikes to prevent nearby tanks from catching fire.
Firefighters, police and soldiers evacuated about 2,400 families from neighborhoods nearby.
Killed in the fire were oil worker Antonio Ibarra Gonzalez, 34, and firefighter Jose Luis Romero del Torre, 46, according to the state-run Pemex, which owns the facility.
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