In the Gulf of Mexico, an underwater natural gas pipeline near an oil platform ruptured off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula

Mexico City, July 6 (RHC)-- In the Gulf of Mexico, an underwater natural gas pipeline near an oil platform ruptured off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, creating a massive circular inferno on the surface of the ocean that was widely described as an “eye of fire.” 

Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex said it took fire crews about five hours to extinguish the flames.

The fossil fuel disaster came on the same day that an explosion and fire at Romania’s largest oil refinery killed one person and injured five others.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, an explosion at a chemical factory in the outskirts of Bangkok killed one person and left at least 33 others injured on Monday.  Thai officials evacuated thousands of people from a three-mile radius of the plant, which housed about 50 metric tons of hazardous chemicals.