A gas explosion Friday morning in Remedios de Escalada, in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, left 20 people injured and five in serious condition during maintenance work on gas pipes.
The blast occurred at 9:44 A.M. local time in the center of Remedios de Escalada, in the southern municipality of Lanus, but firefighters continues working in the area.
Workers from the gas company Metrogas and a third-party company were carrying out maintenance on gas pipes in a commercial establishment when a medium-pressure pipe was perforated, triggering a leak and then the explosion.
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Claudio Arale, local Director General of Civil Defense, detailed that workers punctured a medium-pressure gas line and that emergency services were activated only after the blast, a sequence he described as a likely violation of emergency protocols.
Arale explained that the municipality’s monitoring center first received an alert about a gas leak, followed by an explosion. At the site, he said, were employees of the gas distributor Metrogas and of Exgadet, a company subcontracted by Metrogas. “Evidently they perforated a medium-pressure pipe that caused the leak and the explosion,” the official stated.
He confirmed that 20 injured people were transported and that the five in serious condition were taken to hospital.
The burst of flame sent a shock through a busy stretch of the city’s southern metropolitan area. The emergency response brought together volunteer firefighters from nearby neighborhoods, working to contain the fire and prevent the gas from spreading.
DESPUÉS DE SIETE HORAS LAS LLAMAS SIGUEN SALIENDO BAJO LA TIERRA EN REMEDIOS DE ESCALADA
En el lugar trabajan bomberos, policías, personal judicial y técnicos especializados en gas, mientras que las llamas continúan activas.
(+) en Clarín: https://t.co/akWTWs4X0W pic.twitter.com/el6uuHo04x
— Clarín (@clarincom) November 13, 2026
The fire and the risk from the leak forced emergency teams to evacuate a nursing home, a school and the businesses located within a 200-meter radius. Streets in the area remain closed while specialists work.
A critical step now falls to the gas private company Metrogas. “The sealing of the main gas pipes is being done by Metrogas. Once that is done, our firefighters will be able to advance on the affected buildings to have a true picture of the impact,” Arale explained.
Authorities are letting the fire burn as a precaution. It is safer, the official argued, for the gas to escape through controlled combustion than to disperse through the neighborhood. The risk of collapse is limited to the area directly hit by the explosion.
Firefighters, Civil Defense personnel, security staff and health teams remain deployed while the gas company cuts off the pipes that are still open. Once the supply is sealed, crews can assess the structural damage and determine the full extent of the blast’s impact on the buildings nearby.
Alleged Protocol Violation
According to the Civil Defense Director, Exgadet company was carrying out work with a tunneling machine when its crew broke a gas pipe. Instead of activating local emergency services, the company reported the incident to the gas company Metrogas, which sent a crew to the area to manage the situation.
Arale said security personnel spoke with that crew, who told them they had the situation under control. As a result, local emergency services were only activated once the explosion occurred due to the accumulation of gas.
“Surely there is a violation of emergency protocols,” Arale said, stressing that the first step when a gas leak is detected is to alert local emergency services.
The prosecutor’s office has ordered the detention of the two senior Metrogas employees who were at the scene, the official added.
The investigation will have to determine how the pipe was punctured and why the emergency alert was delayed. The incident has put the spotlight on the safety procedures followed by utility contractors during excavation work near gas infrastructure.
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.