Las fatalities of the truck explosion that was transporting liquefied petroleum gas increased to six because today, Saturday, they died in a hospital two injuredof the total of 17 injured in the explosion that occurred in Santiago, Chilethey reported medical sources to the EFE agency.
The accident was reminiscent of the explosion of a truck belonging to the company Transportadora Silza, a subsidiary of Tomza Groupthat the September 10, 2025 transported 49,500 liters of LP gas and overturned on a curve La Concordia Road Distributor in Iztapalapain the south of Mexico City, with a balance of 144 direct victims (32 dead and 67 injured) e indirect.
Explosion in Chile
In Santiago de Chilethe conflagration occurred at 8:10 a.m. on Thursday, February 19when the truck overturned at the crossroads of the most important highway in the countrythe Ruta 5and the secondary road General Velasquezin the town of Renca.
In a video of the accident, recorded by a highway camera, it is observed that The truck overturned on its left side. and, while crawling on the pavement, he hit the wall that divides both bodies of the road. The liquid then spills out and becomes a gas cloud that expands wide and high and covers everything in its path: people, vehicles and urban infrastructure.
At some point the gas came into contact with an ignition source (spark, flame, electrical switch) and explosion and fire.
In another videorecorded from inside a car by a man who survived, you can see the orange fireball arriving and enveloping the vehicles in the highway. The motorist turned on the air conditioning and as soon as he had the chance, he left his car and managed to get to safety, according to his testimony published in various media.
About 25 fire companies It took more than nine hours to control the fire in Rencain the northwest of Santiago de Chile. The high and dense column of smokewhich at times had the shape of a mushroomwas observed from different points of the city.
Four dead in the explosion in Chile
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EFE photograph taken through network tracking of the explosion of a gas truck in Santiago, Chile -
This and the following photos from EFE show Chilean firefighters controlling the fire caused by the explosion of a truck on Thursday, February 19, 2026 in Santiago -
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AME6848. SANTIAGO (CHILE), 02/19/2026.- Members of the Chilean Fire Department control the fire caused by the explosion of a truck this Thursday, in Santiago (Chile). A truck transporting liquefied gas exploded on a highway, killing four people and leaving at least 17 others injured, ten of them in serious condition. EFE/ Javier Torres -
AME6848. SANTIAGO (CHILE), 02/19/2026.- Members of the Chilean Fire Department control the fire caused by the explosion of a truck this Thursday, in Santiago (Chile). A truck transporting liquefied gas exploded on a highway, killing four people and leaving at least 17 others injured, ten of them in serious condition. EFE/ Javier Torres -
AME6848. SANTIAGO (CHILE), 02/19/2026.- Members of the Chilean Fire Department control the fire caused by the explosion of a truck this Thursday, in Santiago (Chile). A truck transporting liquefied gas exploded on a highway, killing four people and leaving at least 17 others injured, ten of them in serious condition. EFE/ Javier Torres -
AME6848. SANTIAGO (CHILE), 02/19/2026.- Members of the Chilean Fire Department control the fire caused by the explosion of a truck this Thursday, in Santiago (Chile). A truck transporting liquefied gas exploded on a highway, killing four people and leaving at least 17 others injured, ten of them in serious condition. EFE/ Javier Torres -
AME6848. SANTIAGO (CHILE), 02/19/2026.- Members of the Chilean Fire Department control the fire caused by the explosion of a truck this Thursday, in Santiago (Chile). A truck transporting liquefied gas exploded on a highway, killing four people and leaving at least 17 others injured, ten of them in serious condition. EFE/ Javier Torres
According to Chilean media, the truck what exploded is from the Gasco company y the driver wore the gas LP from the terminal located in Quintero towards a plant Gasco in Maipu.
They survived but burned
In the burst four people diedamong them the truck drivery 17 people suffered burnsamong them 10 graves.
According to EFE, the presidential delegate of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile, Gonzalo Duranreported Thursday that several ambulances took 10 people who suffered serious injuries to different hospitals.
Furthermore, he added, at least seven people They arrived to some health centers on their own.
All the victims are adults and most of them are motorists, although the figures are not definitive.
Injured and neighbors in shock due to the explosion
In several videos shared on social networks, residents of the area reported that they felt like an earthquake and they listened a great roar. When they went out into the street they saw that several burned people approached to the properties to ask for help, crying in pain and completely shock.
Also in full shock Because “something like this had never happened,” the neighbors lent clothes to the injured because they were naked and, at the request of several of them, they called their relatives.
He big fire destroyed at least 150 meters around and reached out to others seven vehicles who were traveling on the highway already a parking lot-dismantling of vehiclesreported the Chilean police.
On Thursday the 19th, Macarena Cañas, prosecutor leading the investigationssaid there was two lines of research: he speeding with which the driver was driving, according to the highway video, and the eventual fall of the load of a second truckwhich could have influenced the rollover of the vehicle Gasco.
However, the Governor of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Claudio Orregosaid that the initial hypothesis points to “a leak in one of the truck’s valves and that, for some reason, it occurred a spark what exploded in a whole gas cloud”.
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