inter/national
Explosion toll
may reach 300
MEXICO CITY (AP) —
Thousands of people whose
homes were wiped out in a fiery
gas explosion searched for miss
ing relatives Tuesday in
hospitals and morgues. The Red
V
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Cross said 297 people were
known dead and at least 500
were seriously injured.
About 20 square blocks in
Tlalnepantla, a poor
neighborhood on the northern
edge of the capital, were flatten
ed Monday morning by a dozen
explosions at a gas storage com
plex run by Unigas Co. and
Pemex, the government
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petroluem monopoly. Fireballs
shot from the tanks of liquified
petroleum gas and fiery debris
fell on the surrounding homes,
incinerating many.
“The official figure we have
is 297 (dead) and we unders
tand that eight (other) people
died in hospitals during the
night,” said Commander Ale
jandro Barrios, a Red Cross duty
officer in Mexico City.
Some houses nearest the ex
plosion simply vanished, and
the walls and roofs of others
disappeared. The streets were
littered with dead animals and
blackened cars.
Officials said more than
100,000 people were evacuated
from the area.
Outside one makeshift
morgue survivors were lined
up, and allowed to go in one at a
time to identify victims. “They
should have left the bodies in
the homes, because there it
would have been easier for us to
find them,” she told reporters.
Several people fainted as they
waited under the hot sun.
Many of the survivors made
the rounds at hospitals looking
for relatives and loved ones.
At the Social Security In
stitute’s Medical Center,
families waited for news of
victims.
Survivors were housed in
refugee centers, such as the 18
de Marzo Sports Center, where
1,200 people spent the night.
Tons of food and clothing
poured in from throughout
Mexico.
The army patrolled the blast
area and arrested 20 looters who
were trying to take advantage of
the chaos. Soldiers refused to
allow evacuees to return to their
homes, or where their homes
once stood, while the search for
bodies continued.
In many cases, workers used
jackhammers to break through
piles of concrete rubble under
which they expected to find
more bodies.
Pemex spokesperson
Salvador Del Rio said Monday
that preliminary reports in
dicated a gas truck exploded,
touching off subsequent blasts
at Unigas Co. holding tanks and
then at the adjoining Pemex
center.
Pemex said its site was for
storage and distribution of li
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quid petroleum gas, which is
distributed mainly for cooking
and heating in homes, offices
and small factories.
Firefighters were able to bring
the hlaze under control after
more than seven hours Monday.
On Tuesday there was only a
flame from one of the tankers
that was being allowed to burn
itself out. Officials said there
was no danger of additional
explosions. '
Texas Aggies
tell turkey tales
COLLEGE STATION, Texas
(AP) — The typical turkey grac
ing the nation’s tables this
Thanksgiving will be a hen that
ate 50 pounds of feed during a
life of 17 weeks. It also is one of
the dumbest, most inept critters
that ever lived, say experts at
Texas A&M University.
David Mellor, a poultry ex
pert at the school, said the
domesticated turkey is a bloated
wimp compared to his wild
cousin, flocks of which still
roam the South and Southwest
and are wily and swift enough
to challenge hunters.
The female matures in 17
weeks and typically weighs 12
to 20 pounds. Males, which end
up weighing as much as 60
pounds, are too large a meal for
most families, so they usually
end up as processed meat.
Mellor said American Indians
had domesticated the turkey
long before the Pilgrims arrived
or even before Columbus made
his American landfall in 1492.
Spanish explorers carried the
bird from Mexico to Spain in
1498. The bird spread
throughout Europe and reached
England in 1524.
Europeans may have called
the bird "turkey” because they
"may have been confused about
the bird's origin, thinking that
it, like the guinea-fowl or
peacock, came from Turkey,”
said Mellor.
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