On May 24, 1988, the city of Chihuahua was about to experience a catastrophe of incalculable dimensions when, at 10:10 a.m., the No. 14 tank of the Pemex Plant, which contained more than four million liters of diaphanous, was burned and kept on fire or for more than eight hours, with flames reaching more than 50 meters in height and at 50 meters was a similar tank containing Nova gasoline. About 200,000 people living in ten surrounding colonies were evacuated and the area was cordoned off by the Army and police forces. The fire was stifled shortly after six o't, thanks to the coordinated action of the firefighters of Chihuahua, Delicias, Camargo, Parral, Cuauhtémoc, Aldama and Ciudad Juárez.