MEXICO CITY (AP) – A fire erupted Wednesday at an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, killing four workers, injuring 16 and forcing the evacuation of 300, Mexico’s state-owned oil company said.
A survivor of the blaze on the Abkatun Permanente platform in the Campeche Sound said workers “jumped into the sea out of desperation and panic.”
“There was nothing you could do but run,” said Roger Arias Sanchez, an employee of Petroleos Mexicanos’ contractor Cotemar who escaped the burning platform in an evacuation boat. He spoke in Ciudad del Carmen in Campeche state, where most of the injured and evacuated workers were taken.
Eight firefighting boats were trying to extinguish the fire, said Pemex. Mexico’s Energy Security Agency said the fire “is being extinguished.”
On its Twitter account Wednesday afternoon, Pemex raised the death toll from one to four. In an earlier statement, it said that two of the 16 injured workers were in serious condition. Many appeared to be Cotemar employees.