Death toll in Mexico pipeline fire reaches 89

The death toll in a massive fire at an illegally tapped pipeline in Mexico rose to 89 Monday as more of the injured have died at hospitals.

Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said 51 victims severely burned in the fire were still in hospitals, two of them in Galveston, Texas.

The victims were gathering gasoline from an illegal pipeline tap in the central state of Hidalgo on Friday when the gas ignited, littering an alfalfa field with charred bodies.

The government reported Monday that an astonishing total of 14,894 such illegal taps had been found in 2018, an average of about 41 per day nationwide.

Hidalgo was the state with the highest number of such taps, with 2,121. The fire occurred in the small farming town of Tlahuelilpan, where 38 such taps were found in 2017 and 23 in 2018.

The fire occurred on a 14-inch underground steel pipeline that had been drilled, tapped and patched before.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico's fuel ducts are antiquated and decaying.

"These pipelines haven't been changed in more than 30 years, with thousands of illegal taps, patched-up pipelines without the capacity to carry fuel," he said Monday. "That is why it was decided to expand delivery with tanker trucks."