In fantasy movies, creatures or body parts made completely out of flames is not a rare scene. In action movies, we see huge explosions of fiery infernos from underneath the ocean surface as well. But this viral video of an “eye of fire” is very much real, and without any computer-generated images!
The viral video that was originally posted on Friday by news channels does not show our usual animal videos. Instead, it is a glimpse of how delicate our human engineering is. It also shows how much harm it can cause to the environment if even the smallest part goes wrong or breaks down. The video shows a pipeline leaking under the water off the western coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The escaped gas caused brilliant flames that seemingly boiled up and reached the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Many reporters and viewers who watched the viral video said that it resembled an “eye of fire.”
The Reason Behind The “Eye of Fire”
On Friday, in the early morning, the incident occurred at a location known as the Campeche Sound. The underwater pipeline had a leak from which natural gas from an offshore rig started leaking. Petroleos Mexicanos was the owner of the pipeline in that area. Pemex is their more popular name. The oil company released a statement explaining the situation later on.
Pemex is a petroleum company that is owned by the state. In the released statement, they claimed that they successfully controlled and dealt with the ‘eye of fire’ as soon as possible. They added that protocols for security were in place and prompt. Vessels designed to fight the fire were immediately deployed to the location of the ‘eye of fire’, whose actions were quick and precise.
On Friday, Pemex also claimed that their usual conditions for operations were continued in a little over 5 and a half hours. Their first action was to close the valves interconnecting that segment of the pipe with other segments. That had automatically made fighting and extinguishing the fire much easier and faster. The company further reported that no personnel had been injured. No one even had to be evacuated from the site. The company promised to look further into the incident to figure out why it happened.
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Angel Carrizales, Mexico’s environment, security, and energy agency’s executive director posted about the incident on Twitter providing further information. He wrote that there was no spillage of any kind caused by the leaked gas from the pipeline.
This Was Not The First Time For Pemex
Manuel Lopez San Martin, a journalist, was the original poster of the video. It has since gone viral. The video shows four ships surrounding the massive ‘eye of fire’. It appeared that the ships were spraying water at the huge underwater flaming circle. In his report, Martin claimed that the ‘eye of fire’ was only at a distance of 400 meters from the nearest off-shore oil platform.
Pemex’s history is dotted with industrial accidents of large scale. The website of the company reports that the company currently handles 81 rigs for drilling. Among these, 11 are located off the shore.
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In April, a well operated by Pemex in Mexico’s Tamaulipas also suffered from a leak. The exact name of the location is Sota la Marina. This is present on the website of the company. However, Pemex promised to construct a dam that would stop the flowing clay and water. Furthermore, they also claimed that there was no risk since no one lived in the area.
Gas was probably intentionally lit to prevent a bigger mess if a large gas cloud was accidentally ignited , also burn up any oil with the gas ..
What does that pathetic fire boat think it is accomplishing ?