MEXICO CITY — Twenty-four individuals, including a child,
were killed and no less than 49 others were injured Thursday when two blasts
tore through fireworks workshops in a town just
north of Mexico City.
The dead included four firefighters and two cops who rushed
to the scene after the main blast, just to be by killed by the second blast.
In an initial statement said by the government of the State
of Mexico, there were eight people from the town of Tultepec were killed, along
with the six emergency personnel and two other people who hadn't yet been
recognized. The state government later raised the loss of life to 24.
First responders were also among the injured said by the government.
Helicopters took the injured to several hospitals, and more than 300 police
were sent to the scene.
Many residents make a living by creating and selling
homemade fireworks and explosions are a regular occurrence. In June, seven
people were killed and eight others were injured in a blast in Tultepec.
In December 2016, in an open-air fireworks market crowded
with holiday shoppers a massive fire broke out killing several dozens of
people.
In other places in Mexico deadly fireworks explosions have
also occurred. In 2002, a blast at a market in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz
killed 29 people; in 1999, 63 people died when an explosion of illegally stored
fireworks destroyed part of the city of Celaya; in 1988, a fireworks blast in
Mexico City's La Merced market killed at least 68 people; and in 2013, a rocket
struck a truck loaded with fireworks for a religious procession in Tlaxcala
state, killing 17 people.
Security measures at firecrackers workshops and markets have
been a matter of constant debate in Mexico. While regulations exist on the
books, many continue making powerful firecrackers and bottle rockets and
selling them to the public.
