1992 Guadalajara explosions

The misfortune of Guadalajara took place on 22 April 1992 Analco district of Guadalajara, Mexico. Cause there were several explosions in the sewer system, which lasted about four hours. In the episode several streets collapsed. According to official figures 206 people found in the wreckage of the death, 500 were injured and 15,000 were left homeless. Unofficially, however, assumed a higher number of casualties. The district of Guadalajara is considered as a result of the reconstructions as one of the most modern of the city.

The course of the accident

Just three days before the accident, the residents of some streets of Guadalajara complained about a smell of petrol in toilet and cast, impurities of tap water with gasoline and steam jets out of the sewers. Employees of public utilities and civil protection discovered in a subsequent investigation, that there was indeed an explosive gas -air mixture in the sewers. The danger was not taken seriously by the authorities, in particular the former mayor Enrique Dau Flores and the affected streets were not evacuated.

By a spark which was probably caused by sewer worker who wanted to ventilate the sewers, it finally came on 22 April 1992 on numerous explosions along a strongly canalized Main Street and other adjacent streets of Analco where gas nests of different concentrations had formed. Due to the explosions streets and adjacent houses were destroyed like an earthquake. The explosions went on for six hours and aggravated by the population accustomed to earthquakes immediately started rescue work. In fact, the explosions led to fluctuations of up to 7.1 on the Richter scale, measured from the approximately 300 km from the University in Mexico City.

Causes

Technical causes

An investigation found two probable causes of the accident:

• A new zinc - water pipeline was laid in the vicinity of an existing steel fuel line. The proximity to each other, there was the contact corrosion between the two metal tubes. Through the resulting hole leaked gasoline ( it should have been up to 600,000 liters) into the soil and into the nearby sewer. A hole in the water pipe could explain why in some households mixed with gasoline water from the taps flowed.
• Gathered the gasoline vapors at the junction of the sewer with a subway tunnel, because although the wastewater was pumped through the U-shaped siphon, but the vapors remaining on the page. Thus, the concentration of gasoline rose in the air and spread over the sewer system.

In the meantime, a bordering the district edible oil factory was suspected to have disposed of industrial wastes (especially hexane) improperly - but this suspicion could not be confirmed in the course of the investigations.

Human guilt

As a result of the accident, the state authorities and the state oil company PEMEX accused each other of being responsible for the accident. Despite intensive studies, it was not possible to establish conclusively the end who had the blame for this disaster. The then president of the state of Jalisco, Guillermo Vidaurri Cosío, but was forced to resign in the course of these struggles, and was replaced by Carlos Rivera Aceves.

Follow

According to official figures 206 people found in the wreckage of the death, 500 were injured and 15,000 were left homeless. Unofficially, however, assumed a higher number of casualties. The insurance companies estimated the damage between 300 million and one billion dollars. The city today has a modern sewerage and can constantly examine with sensors, the composition of the wastewater.

A consequence of the documentary series Seconds before the accident treated in detail this catastrophe.