Death toll rises to 18 in Belgian pipeline blast
Two people badly burned in a massive gas pipeline explosion in Belgium last week died of their injuries overnight, taking the death toll to 18.
About 120 people were hurt in the blast on Friday in an industrial area just outside the village of Ghislenghien, about 20 miles south-east of Brussels. The cause is under investigation.
Two serious burn victims died overnight at a hospital in Paris, said the prosecutor’s office in Tournai, which is handling the investigation. A third person injured in the blast died yesterday at a hospital in Antwerp.
The prosecutor’s office said Sunday that 13 of the 15 bodies found at the site of Friday’s blast have been identified, mostly using DNA samples. At least one of the casualties was a French national.
A company in the northern French city of Valenciennes confirmed that one of its electricians who was working at the site at the time of the explosion was one of the dead.
Many of the injured suffered severe burns and were being treated at special burn units in Belgium, as well as in the nearby city of Lille, France, and in Paris.
Investigators still do not know what caused the pipeline rupture and explosion early on Friday.
Gas distributor Fluxys, which operates the pipeline that burst, said it had turned off the gas into the pipeline after the explosion following normal safety procedures.
The pipeline runs from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to France. The blast occurred about a half-hour after the leak was first reported.
It is not clear whether construction workers were digging near the pipeline, causing a rupture.
However, media reported that a gas leak could have been the result of the construction of a new road that was being built over top of the pipeline.
In Ath, the nearest town, six miles from the blast site, flags remained at half-mast as townspeople continued to lay flowers at the town’s fire station, which lost five of its volunteer firefighters in the explosion.
The fire department was called to the blast site before the explosion to check out a reported gas leak.
“We remain proud of our jobs,” Ath firefighter Andre Bougard told VTM television. “We will continue to carry out our duty.”
Yesterday, King Albert II spent most of the day consoling victims’ families and paying tribute to rescue workers. He also visited the blast site.
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and several of his ministers visited the site late on Friday. He declared a national day of mourning when the victims are buried which could come as early as Wednesday.
The explosion which was heard several miles away sent a towering wall of orange flames into the sky. The blast incinerated a large swath of buildings in the industrial park and hurled bodies more than 100 yards into nearby wheat fields. Nearby cars and trucks on a highway were also melted and their occupants suffered burn wounds.
