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The scene in the green alfalfa field abutting the pipeline appeared to be a free-for-all, roughly 80 villagers swarming a leak inside a 100-foot-long, 5-foot-deep irrigation trench that bisected the field. There seemed to be no organization, no tap, no hose—only two holes in the pipe, which made the fuel spurt as if from a wonky fountain. It seemed possible a local huachicol gang had screwed up the extraction, but the holes had none of the typical hallmarks."
There's no description or picture of the pipe, other than that and the photo captioned, "Survivors have erected a memorial at the site of the fire." Similar pipes get punctured by farm equipment fairly routinely; there's no reason to believe this was a criminal tap rather than an accident that the local people tried to take advantage of.
What I suspect Bloomberg wants is an article about the evils of gasoline thieves and they're sticking the human interest story to that to get attention.
