A huge fire broke out Thursday after a tanker truck transporting fuel collided with an overpass next to a rail line in Aguascalientes city.
The truck’s tank exploded due to the impact, causing an enormous blaze that damaged over 100 houses and scores of vehicles. No fatalities were reported, but the driver of the truck sustained a minor arm injury and at least two people were hospitalized due to smoke inhalation.
The driver, reportedly from Guadalajara, was later arrested, while those hospitalized were discharged on Friday.
Most reports said that the truck crashed into a train, but Aguascalientes fire chief Miguel Murillo said that it collided with an overpass by the railroad. One video shared on Twitter shows a freight train traveling through the flames as smoke billows into the air. It also shows a family with two young children getting out of their car to get away from the danger.
Hundreds of families had to evacuate their homes as a result of the dramatic crash, which occurred in the south of the state capital in the late afternoon. Aguascalientes Mayor Leo Montañez said Friday that 15 homes were completely destroyed.
#ÚLTIMAHORA | En la capital de #Aguascalientes, se acaba de dar un choque de una unidad que transportaba material flamable con un tren, sobre la avenida Aguascalientes; al menos dos mil personas fueron evacuadas pic.twitter.com/StXZACbE0j
— Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) October 21, 2022
Authorities set up shelters for people who had nowhere to go after evacuating their homes in the México neighborhood of Aguascalientes city. Some hotels also offered rooms to those in need.
Montañez shared photos of the cleanup efforts on his public Facebook page on Friday morning. The mayor also posted an image of a firefighter with two dogs she rescued, praising Emma García’s “bravery and humanism” in the aftermath of Thursday’s incident.
A similar incident occurred in Aguascalientes in February 2019 when a tanker truck carrying gasoline was struck by a freight train. The driver of the tanker and a passenger died trapped in the truck’s cab after the vehicle exploded and caught fire.
With reports from AFP, Quadratín, La Jornada, Infobae and Reuters
