Fire burns in Gulf of Mexico after pipeline leak

A pit of fire burned in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday after an underwater pipeline rupture.

Mexican state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a tweet that the fire was extinguished on Friday at 10:45 a.m. 

Videos posted to social media show boats dousing the underwater fire with more water. Pemex said it dispatched fire control boats to pump more water over the flames.

The leak occurred about 150 yards from a drilling platform, and it took control personnel about five hours to try and extinguish the fire.

It was unclear how much environmental damage the gas leak and oceanic fireball had caused.

Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote that "the frightening footage of the Gulf of Mexico is showing the world that offshore drilling is dirty and dangerous."

Sakashita added, "These horrific accidents will continue to harm the Gulf if we don’t end offshore drilling once and for all."