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Just before I went to work for a gas pipeline company, a guy had tried to tap into one of our high pressure lines. He had used a backhoe to expose the pipe. He had a drill rig with a clamp, which would have been the right way to tap the pipe, except his setup was not for a 3000 psi line. They extracted his charred body from the pit, with the drill embedded in his chest. Moral of the story: Don't.

I understand that people were desperate. But holly hell, it was raining gasoline. No one thought there could be a fire?

Burnt human has a distinct odor. I first smelled it at 12 years old. My grandpa and I had just pulled into the street from the gas station when it went up in a fireball. My grandpa quickly parked, grabbed his black bag, and had me sit with a girl we both knew was not long for the world. I held her hand and watched her fade and die. That experience solidified my resolve to go into medicine. While I’m pretty sure she wasn’t aware of anything in her last moments, I like to think that if she was, she took comfort in me being with her at the end. Grandpa is the reason several of the victims survived that day. He was a surgeon. He never specialized in any field, nor did he shy away from any kind of surgery. He did everything but transplants. Yes, my grandpa is my hero.

Who would have thought that a bunch of flammable fuel gushing out of a pipe uncontrollably would catch fire? I would have never have guessed that would happen!

Having lived in Iowa back in the early 2000's, when "Meth making" was epidemic, we had several tragedies resulting when a local knucklehead(s) would try tapping high-pressure anhydrous Ammonia tanks that farmers had to fertilize their cornfields. It usually went like this: one or two people would ride out on a four-wheeler in the middle of the night to tap the AA tank, they'd break a valve or something and the liquid AA would come spraying out at several hundred PSI, they'd be found dead the next morning, and a massive hazmat response would follow.

My theory is that someone 'working hard' collecting petrol decided it was time for a ciggy and just sparked up. After a while you wouldn't smell the fumes anymore, and you'd be high as a kite by then and likely incapable of good judgement - although the existence of good judgement is questionable as they are playing in a gasoline fountain.

The uncensored video of this disaster is quite horrific. You can see people running covered in fire from head to toe. There was a similar pipeline explosion like this in Nigeria some years ago.

At one time I worked for a pipeline company and was the first on the scene at a major pipeline rupture. It released a half a million liters of gasoline in to a field in a matter of minutes. It was a sixteen inch diameter pipe that had the potential flow rate of almost a million liters per hour at a pressure of 80 Bar. I remained on-scene for about eighteen hours and was joined by almost fifty company representatives and more than a hundred clean-up contractors to dig out the damaged section of pipe. It was four meters underground and was hit in the side by a horizontal boring machine from a contractor who was putting in a different pipeline and thought that they were well beneath our line. It filled up their excavation pit (the size of an olympic swimming pool and flooded out in to the surrounding field. We managed to repair the line within twenty-four hours but it took us years to remediate the site as gasoline had entered the ground water (it was also a wetlands). There was nobody there to steal fuel; Sane people stay the frick away from a giant lake of gasoline. We (the employees and contractors) were there because we had to be. If it had ignited.... well, they wouldn't of found much left of us. To say that someone would be burned beyond recognition is an understatement. Some of those people would be burned to ashes and maybe only some bits of teeth would of remained.

As tragic as this is, all I can wonder is, "What did they _think_ was going to happen?"

It’s not to hard to imagine what sparked the fire. Someone, out of habit, probably tried to light up a cigarette in the area. With 600+ people in the area, chances are that more than a few would be careless enough to light up while gas is flowing. It happens more often than you’d think and this just sounds like a gas station fire times 100.

I recall watching the video of this fire when it happened. What amazed me was the cars they were driving....15,000-25,000 dollar cars, and they are drenched in gasoline trying to scoop up 5 or 10 dollars worth of free fuel, only to be burned alive. A Mexican man interviewed at the time said, "They just didn't know the danger". Really? Who on this planet does not know gasoline is highly flammable???

As mentioned in the video theft from Pemex pipelines is common. The company I work for provides pipeline leak detection systems; we've tried multiple times talking with Pemex about this issue. In the 1990's we did a pilot demonstration project on an old Pemex gasoline pipeline scheduled for decommissioning.... the pilot project was successful and plans were made between our company and Pemex to install the system across many gasoline and refined product pipelines across Mexico. Then suddenly one day, all work was stopped. A few months later we heard certain "high up" officials (either in Pemex or the government or both) had stopped this project because these officials were involved, either directly benefiting from the theft or from bribes. I was very disappointed, I really enjoyed working in Mexico.

When I was doing private military work in West Africa protecting a water well drilling crew for a charity operation we had a fireball go up a few miles east of us. Apparently a stalled semi full of groceries and a surprising amount of cigarettes got rear ended by a tanker truck full of gasoline. The tanker was leaking and a bunch of villagers descended on both to loot them. Fortunately casualties were low due to someone among the first looters on scene lighting a cigarette early in the heist before the rest of the village had time to get there.

There was a similar incident in (I believe) India, were people were collecting petrol from a leaking pipeline. As night fell, someone lit a candle, so they could see what they were doing. I think you can guess what happened next.

You could not make this stuff up. Watching people standing in a gasoline fountain with buckets just beggars belief. As above, remember the original video, which was grim.

Seeing the video of the people standing right next to the volcano of gasoline trying to catch some makes my head hurt from all the stupidity

Never expected to see the Huachicol Fest covered in this channel. Tragic as it was. This is one of the few cases where the consensus in the country was to feel no empathy for the thieves and the amount of memes that flooded social media was extremely high and is still reposted during the anniversary day each year.

Gasoline bubbling up like a big fountain; what could possibly go wrong??

Something similar happened in Guadalajara in the '90s, although as I recall, in that case it wasn't caused by fuel thieves, but rather a carelessly built pipeline that ended up more or less filling the sewers downtown with gasoline. The usual Pemex incompetence, either way. There was a _Seconds From Disaster_ episode about it, I think.

One meme I remember "Life make me Huachicolero, but Pemex transformed me in to Ghost Rider"

I want to mention that only a couple of years before this was when "el gasolinazo" happened, which was a massive mark up on gasoline basically doubling the price in as little as 18 months. The price never really went down, and that's why huachicol (stolen gasoline) really started being big business. So essentially this was a direct consequence of that, and of course the government was a big part of it with its monopoly on fuel in all of the country. Also, I smiled at the pronunciation attempts of the Mexican city names and 'huachicoleros', but I really burst out laughing whe you said "mexican dollars" lmao.

i have a very hard time feeling bad for people who stayed in a dangerous area to steal fuel for multiple hours. Did no one have the sense to think "wow extreme danger". this is different from someone trying to nap on their ride home on a Ferry or a Light Rail.

It was nice of the government to pack up the fuel into conveniently-stealable trucks instead of making the thieves extract it from a pressurized pipeline

Those black circles look crazy bcoz that's where runners fell...

John, as a Mexican viewer I really appreciate you trying to pronounce the local names.

I feel I would pass out standing next to the gas volcano just from the fumes...

"Oooh a gigantic stream of petrol is shooting out the pipe, lets have some." Yeah well worth to die over some free petrol... Even if I was that poor, I would never be stupid enough to get that close to a shitshow like that. What did they expect?

A lot of disasters you cover I don't know much about going in, but this one I saw unfold on live TV. I remember seeing the footage before the blast thinking "there is going to be a single moment where this vaporised petrol becomes a bomb" and then, the still live coverage an hour later was just horrible.

This wasn’t about necessity it was about greed they were warned several times in 2019 which is when it peaked. Many times the Mexican marines would confront these people and the “innocent” people would have violent confrontations. This incident really brought to light how much was out there and many places were raided after this. I am sorry 😞 but it had to happen for it to stop.

I was in mexico when this happened, everyone was having fun at night, almost like a festival. Then there was an explosion, then there were sparks of light moving through the fields. People covered in gasoline and flames screaming, children and dogs included. It was one of the worst tragedies I witnessed in Mexico, second to the earthquakes of 2017 and 2019

Here in my country Paraguay 🇵🇾, there was also a big fire with 400 unrecognizable deaths. It was a terrible tragedy

Greetings from Mexico. It was said that the one that sparked all that gas was an outstanding individual who lighted his smokes.

All things considered, running towards a giant gasoline fountain is, at best, a terrible decision.

Suitably atomised petrol vapours don't even need a spark. The friction between the molecules alone can make it explode. It's not a case of if, it's a case of when.

There is no such thing as a "small leak" when it comes to natural gas or petrol. Thank you again for your work.

I love your videos and the style: informative and entertaining without being unnecessarily grisly or dramatic, while also being respectful. That said, the opening music scares the crap out of me.

This is a very nice one. It shows how a huge number of people with little to no knowledge will ignore danger for greed. These cases have to happen from time to time, so that at least some get to learn something.

I think the weather report in London in every video is code for something..

Who in the hell would run towards a gasoline leak?? I have seen a couple of accidental spills over the years in different shops, but what's that three maybe four gallons. Even that makes me nervous, but it needs to be handled quickly. Forget a freaking pressurized pipeline🤯

Could say that the thieves hopes became a pipe dream.

Thieves is the plural of Thief.

I don't understand why they got compensation. I mean they where criminally charged for stealing petrol, don't collaborated with soldiers,still compensation? It's mind-blowing

Yeah, I still remember that. The hundred of people on the leak was told to leave but non of them did so, the explosion was horrible, there's a raw video from the instant when it went off. Also, some stuff -The Huachicoleros name came because they began to sell altered/stolen gasoline as "Huachicol" (sounds like Wua-Chi-Col), they even sell it on big cities like Mexico City and surrounding suburbs. -When AMLO president came to power, the fuel issue became really hard in all country, I remember that even public transport in Mexico CIty began to be a bit hard to find, as trucks and cabs didnt have enough money to buy fuel, now in outer parts of the metro area the transport became a really hard issue. -Hidalgo State has become something like "Ground Zero" for petrol/gas theives, you can pretty much drive on any of the Hwy's and you'll find little shacks that sell you that fuel for like $10MXN instead of the $20+MXN per litre. -The town Is Tlahuelilpan (Tla-jue-lil-pan) and It's said that more or less half of the population died on the explosion and even the local graveyard was filled up and bodies had to be burried in other nearby towns. -I remember there was some people that was also mad about the people didn't getting charges, because the leak/explosion was thrown under the rug as there's no crime to pursuit everything ended on Pemex saying "Oh yeah, sorry, but that's how thing's are". -Mexican currency is called "Peso", saying Mexican Dollars made my wallet gasp in expectation haha

Another scene right out of the prophetic movie Idiocracy.

For future reference: it's just pesos or Mexican pesos

This truly was a difficult one to assess. Several players need to examine their conscience and acknowledge their part in the horrific loss of life. This was sickening incompetance.

They deserved no payout. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Pretty much everyone knows how flammable gasoline is.

I love your videos and have just become a member. I would love to see you do a video on the 1975 fire at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama. It all started with a candle, believe it or not. Thankfully, a disaster was avoided, but only narrowly so.....Thank you for your hard work producing top notch content!!!!

I think I know where in Texas some of the victims were sent. Parkland, here in Dallas, has an excellent burn unit. When that grain shed blew up in West, Texas a lot of the victims were airlifted to Parkland for treatment.

Speaking of Mexican oil/gas fire dusasters, I'd LOVE it if you could do a video about the San Juanico tragedy of 1984! ^_^

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve seen gas station attendants in smaller Mexican towns, pumping gas while smoking cigarettes, I’m actually surprised it took so long before it all went up.

Hell of a video to see, yet I still struggle to wrap my head around how insanely dangerous this situation clearly was yet so many were willing to risk it all for free petrol. Either desperation or stupid greed, but damn it would take some serious convincing to get me anywhere near this, even as a bystander.

Was about to say how stupid have you got to be to go stand in a field soaked with a Fuel fountain. But they must have been so bloody poor to do this knowing that just one small spark could bow and burn them in seconds , that they just didnt care

Why did they pay the "vicitms" families? They were risking their lives in an incredibly dangerous situation to steal a petty amount of gasoline, what are they gonna leave with, 5 or 10 gallons?

My area in Appalachia doesn't have much in the way of oil REFINING but it DOES have a lot of oil and gas extraction. During the 2008-2012 recession and associated gas crisis we had quite a few pipeline explosions lighting up the sky as people were trying to tap the "drip gas" (basically like camp fuel, straight naphtha with a pretty low octane rating) from the condensate tanks at pumping stations in the countryside, most of which are unmanned, unsecured, and in minor disrepair, to mix 50/50 with leaded off-road race gas to make something cheap and untaxed that'd run in a straightpiped car. There's also been quite a few instances of the local last-mile oil companies catching people in the act of tapping the collection tanks at well sites, either for the same sort of drip gas, or for straight crude oil to run through coffee filters for use in diesel engines and oil furnaces, but those usually don't cause any issues except lost revenue. I also heard of QUITE a few people who had abandoned but uncapped wells on their land, or in the National Forest, illegally reactivating them either solely for home-use gas (not uncommon to buy the gas rights from the oil company, you just tap the gas port and install a separator, but it can also be done with dormant wells) or sometimes going as far as to build their own derricks and bootlegging the crude as a cheap alternative to diesel/heating oil.

Love a weekend with a new video from our main man John! ❤️

I really appreciate how you cover these disasters in a way that feels more journalistic than exploitive.

It's sad that preventable disaster happened. At times some people do some incredibly dumb things when it comes to gasoline or other consumable items when there's a supply shortage. For most of 2021 and well into 2022 there was a Sam's Club gas station in the city I live in that with a membership sold gas for about 5 cents less per gallon than other gas stations within a couple mile radius. Loads of people would wait in line for 30-60+ minutes at a time just to save that small amount. The daily congestion got so bad that the city started requiring off duty police officers be hired to direct traffic and be available to quickly report vehicle accidents as the line would often spill out onto a nearby busy 4 lane road. The gas station started matching the prices of other nearby stations instead of continuing to pay for the off duty officers and the situation disappeared practically overnight. I could only imagine the insanity that would unfold if there was a way for people even here in the Midwest US to get gallons of gas for free, even with the inherit danger of a massive explosion and fire.

That graph really cleared things up for me. 😂

You’re killing it, man. Keep em’ coming! Hello from Leeds Massachusetts!

I like that you make note of the weather, it gives me almost 100% certain forecast for tomorrow, a little north of Amsterdam

I just can't imagine thinking "it's a party, bring the kids!" in a situation like this. Risk your own life if you want but leave the kids at home.

Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my actions... Hey, let's go and fuck around in that big gasoline cloud... This is literally Darwin at work.

John, you rock. Please do the 1985 MOVE incident in Philadelphia USA, where the police bombed a row of houses and burnt down the entire block. Many deaths. Cheers!

Legendary series of documentaries as always - thank you

Thanks for another interesting episode,truly tragic. Love the outro sonics

John, you for amazing pronouncing all of those Mexican names and places. I'm from the West Coast of the US, and have been learning Spanish as I go. Great job also on this doc. I always enjoy your short documentaries because you make them so easy to picture in my mind.

what a bad idea these people arent very bright

Always nice to see you cover a story from my country. Another great video as always

Reminds me of a case in South Africa a few years back when some guys tried cutting open the transnet port service diesel pipeline at the harbour, untill the diesel got too hot from all the cutting/sparks ignited and the part of the pipeline they where cutting went boom.

The folk ain't too bright.

You do a fantastic job on your videos 📸❤

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE JOHN

So happy to see your new disaster! Wait! That didn’t come out right. Crap! Home sick so I’m not my usually functional self. I’m glad to find your newest video just when I need to take my mind off feeling bad.

Sometime would like to see what a really wet part of London looks like, not your house, but a nearby street with shops.

Mexico’s gonna Mexico

Scariest thing about a fuel air explosion is that it can pull the air from hundreds of meters away and you'll suffocate

Oh man I remember this. news of this was all over spanish news channels here in the states as well and being spanish news it stright up showed uncensored raw footage of the people on fire.

Thank you for this! I absolutely needed a distraction today. I live I'm Maine, more specifically my town is next to Lewiston, so it's been a rough few days. Thanks for all you do brother, you are the man PD!

What can I say? FAFO? What I dislike the most isn't that this happened, it's that the families of the deceased asked money to the government because THIS HAPPENED. 😑

I remember watching the video showing the complete accident and there were vehicles with people smoking. Not directly over the pipe but enough that people should of noticed. The video showed them running and falling. So many people excited yet knocking on the devils door. The only video that was close was when a Soviet rocket blewup on launch and people running caught on fire

I'm amazed that I hadn't heard anything about this earlier. Thanks for the video.

As Mexican I have to say that this disaster is embarrassing, it exposed the very worst of us, petty thieves combined with stupidity, plus the absurd populist response of the current administration, indemnifying “victims” and exempting them from any wrongdoing. This paternalistic attitude from the government together with our meek and complacent attitude has crippled Mexico.

I was scrolling youtube for content from my favorite youtubers to eat food to and here you are, spot on

Nice work John! keep them coming!

I can barely fill up the tank on my mower without getting a headache, tf these ppl taking a small beach vacation under the gas geyser?

Compensation? For a bunch of thieves? That sounds something out of the United States…

"Tla hue lee pan" "High-dalgo" you really Britished those up! 😁 More seriously, this is good stuff, please keep it going! Just bear in mind that those of us on this side of the pond might cringe a little at your pronunciation of Mexican names 😘

horrific as always great vid dude

❤I appreciate ur work ya pommy bugga! much love from NZ

Decision to NOT shut that shit DOWN... Should have been held accountable

Your impartiality, and compassion, showed through well on this one. Nice work.

Thank you for this one, I didn't know much about it and now I do.

Great work as always!

A whole bunch of Darwin Award winners here.

It's wasn't desperation, stolen gasoline is a huge business here. The most dangerous thing about that people is not their ignorance about how gasoline works, is the fact that they can reproduce and vote.

Congrats on the album..

Keep up the good work, really do appreciate it

🏆 and the Darwin Trophy goes to....