Sunday, February 04, 2007
Death toll in tanker blast rises to 50
MANILA -- The death toll from a tanker explosion in Tigbao, Zamboanga del Sur has risen from 27 to 50 after authorities accounted for the mutilated remains of more victims, officials said Saturday.
Chemists from the National Bureau of Investigation are also helping investigate the cause of the explosion.
Based on initial investigation, the tanker truck was negotiating a downhill stretch of the highway in Tigbao town in Zamboanga del Sur Friday when its brakes failed, causing it to slam into the side of the mountain before overturning and killing its driver, police said.
Minutes later, someone shouted that there was a fire under the truck, but before people could flee, a powerful explosion demolished the vehicle and blew off the roof of a nearby minibus, hurling it into the opposite lane, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Ramon Ochotorena said.
Fifty people were killed and at least 65 others were hurt. The injured were brought to different hospitals in the province, about 770 kilometers south of Manila, said provincial social welfare officer Conchita San Diego.
San Diego said many of the victims were passengers of the minibus and onlookers -- residents of nearby communities and passing motorists who stopped or were slowed down by the traffic jam caused by the overturned tanker truck.
The truck's owner told police the tanker contained liquefied carbon dioxide that was to be delivered to a Coca-Cola plant in Zamboanga City, about 200 kilometers farther south, Ochotorena said.
Ochotorena said 24 bodies and the decapitated head of a person were recovered at the scene. Two other people died later Friday in hospitals in the provincial capital of Pagadian, 20 kilometers away.
Police, soldiers and volunteers helped recover body parts from a nearby ravine, Ochotorena said.
Chemists from the National Bureau of Investigation are helping investigate the explosion, which was so powerful that the tanker, which had a 2.54-centimeter metal skin, was "blown to smithereens." The truck's transmission was found several hundred meters (yards) away, he added.
Mark Gleen Tahum, 24, one of the truck's crew, said he was able to save himself by jumping off the truck before it overturned and helped pull out another crewman. (AP)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (February 4, 2007 issue)
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