The inferno at a gas distribution centre owned by state-run energy company Pemex killed 30 workers, but only eight victims have been identified since Tuesday's tragedy near the US border.
An official from the prosecutor's office on Thursday told AFP that 22 of the bodies can't be identified because they were burned beyond recognition, requiring grief-stricken relatives to provide DNA samples.
The family members have been waiting anxiously outside the forensics lab in the border city of Reynosa since Wednesday.
"They told me yesterday to wait two or three days because they are all charred and unrecognisable," said the mother of 23-year-old victim Victor Manuel Gomez.
The blast injured more than 40 people, and 25 of them are still receiving treatment in hospitals.
Reynosa hospital director Arturo Justino Ibarra said 13 people were being treated for serious injuries and second-degree burns.
They are all men aged between 20 and 25.
It was Pemex's deadliest incident since December 2010, when an oil pipeline exploded after it was punctured by thieves in the central town of San Martin Texmelucan, leaving 29 dead, injuring more than 50 and destroying 32 homes.
In October 2007, 21 Pemex workers died during a gas leak on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Most drowned when they jumped into the sea in panic.
President Felipe Calderon has ordered the prosecutor's office to conduct an investigation into the blast, which Pemex described as an "unusual accident," ruling out foul play.
Friday 21 September 2012
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/families-give-dna-to-id-gas-fire-victims/story-fn3dxix6-1226478770139
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