San Juanico disaster
The San Juanico disaster involved a series of fires and explosions at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank farm in the settlement of San Juan Ixhuatepec (popularly known as San Juanico), municipality of Tlalnepantla de Baz, State of Mexico, Mexico on 19 November 1984. The facility and the settlement, part of Greater Mexico City, were devastated, with 500–600 victims killed, and 5000–7000 suffering severe burns. It is one of the deadliest industrial disasters in world history, and the deadliest industrial accident involving fires and/or explosions from hazardous materials in a process or storage plant since the Oppau explosion in 1921. Background The incident took place at a storage and distribution terminal for liquified petroleum gas (LPG) belonging to the state-owned oil company Pemex. The facility consisted of 54 LPG storage tanks: six large spherical tanks, of which four with capacity of and two with capacity of , as well as 48 smaller horizontal bullet-shaped tanks of various sizes, for a total plant capacity of , representing one third of Mexico City's entire liquid petroleum gas supply. Contrary to good practice, the sphere support legs were not fireproofed. Tanks were divided in several clusters by concrete walls about tall. It received