Mexican fireworks market explosion

[waltky]

Explosion at Mexican fireworks market...

Mexico fireworks market blast kills at least 27, hurts scores
Tue Dec 20, 2016 | At least 27 people died and at least 70 were injured in an explosion at a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, local authorities said.

A massive, multicolored explosion decimated a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, leaving it a charred wasteland and killing at least 29 people with dozens more injured. Television images showed a flurry of pyrotechnics exploding into the early afternoon sky as a giant plume of smoke rose above the market. Fireworks detonated in a peal of clattering bursts reminiscent of a war zone. The technicolor blast was the third such explosion in just over a decade to hit the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City. The detonations struck in the run-up to the busy Christmas holiday when many Mexicans stock up on fireworks. "People were crying everywhere and desperately running in all directions," said 20-year-old witness Cesar Carmona.

Fire fighters stand amidst the wreckage of houses destroyed in an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico​

Some 13 children suffered burns to over 90 percent of their bodies and were being sent to the U.S. city of Galveston in Texas for treatment, said Eruviel Avila, the governor of the State of Mexico where Tultepec is located. He put the death toll at 29. Avila also vowed to find and punish those responsible for the blast and provide economic assistance to those who had lost their livelihoods. Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said a lack of sufficient safety measures was the likely cause of the blast. The federal police said it had sent a forensic team to investigate the incident, adding that at least 70 people had been injured. Videos from the scene showed people frantically fleeing, while aerial footage revealed blackened stalls and a flattened tangle of metal and wood.

Over 80 percent of the 300 stalls at the market were destroyed by the explosion, said state official Jose Manzur. Local media reported there were 300 tonnes of fireworks at the market at the time of the explosion. Federico Juarez was present when the first explosion rocked the market. "Everyone started running to escape as bricks and pieces of concrete fell everywhere," said Juarez. The blast is the latest in a long-running series of fatal explosions and industrial accidents that have roiled Mexico's oil, gas and petrochemical industries.

A police officer talks on his mobile phone while standing amidst the wreckage of houses destroyed in an explosion at the San Pablito fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, in Tultepec, Mexico​

A blast struck the Tultepec fireworks market in September 2005 just before independence day celebrations, injuring many people. Almost a year later, another detonation gutted the area again. "I offer my condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured," President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a tweet. Pena Nieto is the former governor of the State of Mexico, the country's largest which surrounds the capital.

Mexico fireworks market blast kills at least 29, hurts scores

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Explosion at Mexico fireworks market kills at least 9
Dec. 20, 2016 -- At least nine people were killed and dozens more were hurt Tuesday when an explosion went off at a fireworks market in central Mexico.

The blast occurred at the San Pablito district, about 20 miles outside Mexico City. It wasn't immediately clear what set off the explosion.

Most news outlets reported at least 9 dead, but some reported the toll at more than two dozen. "My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a quick recovery for the injured," Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted late Tuesday.

More than 70 people were injured in the blast, reports said.

Explosion at Mexico fireworks market kills at least 9

 

[Lewdog]

Well I guess that is one way to go out with a bang...

 

[tyroneweaver]

Look like an A bomb went off.

 

[saveliberty]

Smoking or fat people with stretchy pants would be my guess.

 

[waltky]

Aftermath of deadly fireworks explosion...

Mexicans seek loved ones, answers in deadly fireworks blast
Dec 21,`16 -- Relatives of workers at a fireworks market flattened by a deadly chain-reaction explosion searched hospitals for loved ones Wednesday as attention focused on apparent lax security that allowed vendors to display their dangerous wares in the passageways between stalls.

Late Wednesday, the state of Mexico, where the San Pablito Market is located, updated its list of dead to 33, a figure also announced by state Interior Secretary Jose Manzur in a local radio interview. About 46 people remained hospitalized. Ten of the injured were minors, including one girl with burns over 90 percent of her body. Juana Antolina Hernandez, who has run a stand for 22 years in San Pablito next to one operated by her parents, escaped the market in a mad dash when the explosions began Tuesday afternoon. The following day she was one of the disconsolate residents waiting outside a local morgue. "I can't find my father, and my mother is very badly burned," said Hernandez, 49. "I am waiting here for them to tell me if my father is here, but up to this point, nothing."

San Pablito was especially well stocked for the holidays and bustling with hundreds of shoppers when the blast reduced the market to a stark expanse of ash, rubble and the scorched metal, casting a pall over the Christmas season. Dramatic video of the explosion showed a towering plume of smoke that was lit up by a staccato of bangs and flashes of light, the third such incident to ravage the market on the northern outskirts of Mexico's capital since 2005. Refugio Leon, who spent years working at the market and whose family ran seven stalls there, said vendors commonly stacked displays of bottle rockets and firecrackers outside their establishments in the passageways - even though the rules supposedly forbade putting merchandise in what was supposed to be a safety buffer to prevent chain-reaction explosions. "Everybody did it," Leon said, speculating that it may have played a role in the rapid spread of the explosions.

A fireworks market lays in ruins one day after an explosion at the San Pablito Market in Tultepec on the outskirts of Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. The market was especially well stocked for the holidays and bustling with hundreds of shoppers when a powerful chain-reaction explosion ripped through its stalls Tuesday, killing and injuring dozens.​

Video and photos of the stalls from previous years showed concrete-block enclosures with open dirt passageways between them; later photos showed the passageways filling up with fireworks and awnings. Officials in Mexico State, which borders Mexico City, said it was too early to identify a cause of the massive series of blasts. On Dec. 12 the city of Tultepec, where the market is located, issued a statement calling San Pablito "the safest market in Latin America." It said 100 tons of fireworks were expected to be sold during the high season, which runs from August to New Year's. The city quoted Juan Ignacio Rodarte Cordero, the director of the state's Fireworks Institute, as saying "the stalls are perfectly designed and with sufficient space between them to avoid any chain of fires." City officials said the stalls were equipped with trained personnel, sand, shovels and fire extinguishers.

But during a recent visit to the market, little of that safety equipment could be seen. And when Tuesday's explosion began, vendors and customers didn't have time to look for it - or even, in many cases, to run. In a fireworks market in Jaltenco, about 30 minutes away from the San Pablito market, business was slow on Wednesday. Rosa Maria Gonzalez, 47, indicated that her stand was 12 meters from the next nearest ones and said she believed that San Pablito's passageways were narrower and more cluttered. Gonzalez said she had a permit and met all of the other required safety measures with a bucket of sand and bucket of water at the ready. But she conceded it likely would not make a difference. "When there is really an accident there isn't time for anything," Gonzalez said. "I'm not going to look for the sand, if it begins to go off the only thing you can do is run and wait until it all goes out."

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[waltky]

Extortion may be behind fireworks market explosion...

Mexico to rebuild fireworks market; extortion a possible cause for explosions
Dec. 23, 2016 -- Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said his government will help rebuild the San Pablito fireworks market after a series of explosions killed at least 35 people.

"We talked with leaders of artisans and we committed ourselves to the 300 tenants so that next year they can restart their work," Peña Nieto after visiting victims in a hospital on Thursday. Tultepec's economy relies heavily on the pyrotechnics trade. The city is located north on the outskirts of Mexico City.

About 300 tons of fireworks were in the market at the time of the explosions, Mexican authorities said. "Today I visited the injured patients from the unfortunate events that occurred in the San Pablito market of Tultepec," Peña Nieto said in a statement. "My condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives and my wishes of swift recuperation for those injured. The government of the republic stands in solidarity and works with all those affected."

El Debate reported Armando Portuguez Fuentes, the mayor of Tultepec, said there are three possible causes to the deadly incident: a dispute between fireworks merchants, banned high-explosive fireworks fell to the ground and detonated or extortionists threatening merchants for money and work detonated explosives in attempts to scare merchants, but instead set off a chain reaction.

Mexico to rebuild fireworks market; extortion a possible cause for explosions