Chaos follows hospital blast

Inside the maternity hospital on the western edge of Mexico City, concern quickly turned to panic as the sour smell of propane seeped in and a vapor cloud grew at the emergency room's entrance.

Then a truck delivering the propane exploded, causing most of the hospital to collapse and sending flames and smoke into the sky on Thursday morning.

Fatimas Parras, 16, was getting ready for school in her nearby home when the blast blew tiles off the roof. With her hair still wet, she ran outside where she encountered a boy of about 13 carrying an infant from the hospital.

"The baby was covered in dust and the boy was running. He started to scream 'Help! Help!'" Parras said. Neighbors who rushed to the scene found bleeding mothers carrying newborns out of the hospital's rubble while babies cried in the ruins.

The blast killed a baby and a 25-year-old nurse at the scene, with a second infant dying hours later, Mexico City officials said. Eight more children and seven adults were reported in serious condition among the more than 70 people injured. Late Thursday, officials said no one remained beneath the rubble of the Maternity and Children's Hospital of Cuajimalpa.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the gas truck driver and two other employees of the Express Nieto company were hospitalized and in custody. He said the company has provided gas to all the city's public hospitals since 2007.

Mancera said some of the injured were already being released from other hospitals, including some mothers who suffered injuries while using their bodies to shield their children.

Up to 80 percent of Mexicans use propane rather than natural gas delivered by mains, and highly explosive liquefied propane is distributed to homes and businesses either by trucks like the one that exploded or in cylinders, said Margarita Palma of Amexgas, a trade association of Mexico's propane distributors.

The blast occurred at 7:05 am when the truck was making a delivery of gas to the hospital kitchen and gas started to leak. Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.

Officials said 110 people were inside the 35-bed hospital when the truck blew up.

Local resident Carlos Soria Rezendiz said homes next to the hospital had broken and cracked windows, and many neighbors ran to help evacuate victims.

After the explosion, "some people ran and began to pull out people. They began to pull up debris and remove people who were screaming and waving only their hands", said Soria's cousin, Ariatna Resendiz.

As the day wore on, people arrived at the Hospital ABC offering diapers and baby formula. There was an hourlong wait to donate blood.

It was the closest hospital to the explosion and received 31 patients, including 17 children. Dr. Moises Zielanowski, the hospital's director of operations, said six babies arrived unaccompanied and without identification.

(China Daily 01/31/2015 page12)