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A building containing fireworks exploded in Tultepec, near Mexico City, killing at least 24 people and injuring 49.
At least 24 people were killed and 49 wounded, including firefighters and police officers, by several explosions that occurred Thursday in fireworks warehouses in Tultepec, a city north of Mexico, nearly half of the victims are rescuers trapped.
"We have 24 dead, 17 on the spot and 7 in the hospitals " including a minor, said the local prosecutor's office in a statement, which reports a number of 49 wounded transported to various hospitals.
Among the dead are four firefighters, four municipal policemen and a police officer. State, announced the Minister of Public Security of the State Maribel Cervantes.
Four workshops were destroyed
Tultepec, a city renowned for its hand-held pyrotechnic devices and the country's largest fireworks market, has already been saddled by several similar accidents, the deadliest in 2016 having makes 42 dead. "We are deeply sorry for the deaths of what were killed this morning in (…) Tultepec, including our firefighters and police colleagues who lost their lives by saving many others" [19459006saidinatweettheRedCrossoftheStateofMexicowhereTultepecislocated
The first explosion took place around 9:30. As police and firefighters arrived on the scene and started taking care of the victims, the fire spread to other warehouses, causing further explosions. Hours after the tragedy, hundreds of soldiers, police and firefighters were deployed in the Xahuento neighborhood, in the suburbs of the city, around buildings still smoking.
A powerful smell of gunpowder saturated the air . Outside the vast perimeter of safety lay on the grbad furniture and calcined bricks projected by the explosions. "I had breakfast when I heard a terrible explosion. We ran out of the house and saw a huge white cloud in the sky, as if it was going to rain. Except that today it rained fire " told Alondra Perez, 62, who lives on the other side of the street.
Tradition
Accidents related to the pyrotechnic industry are common in Mexico and especially in Tultepec, where the fireworks traditionally used by Mexicans to celebrate the sacred days are made. A spectacular explosion in the big fireworks market killed 42 people and wounded 70 people in December 2016. A rocket exploded, causing chain reactions. The market, crowded before Christmas and New Year, had been transformed into a field of ruins. More recently, on June 6, an explosion left seven more people dead in the city.
"People here want to continue making fireworks. It's their tradition " told AFP a police officer, on condition of anonymity. "But they do not measure the consequences of these tragedies. It's annoying because our fellow firefighters (…) end up losing their lives saving these people. "
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto presented his condolences to the families of the victims on Twitter, and the State Interior Minister Alejandro Ozuna said that a "exhaustive control" of all permits of the workshops would be realized. "We have a way of life and a tradition, but we have to send a message to the community and they have to understand that you have to regulate all that, for their own safety" he declared.
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