Despite Deadly Blast in Tultepec, Vendors Clamor to Rebuild Fireworks Market Paulina Villegas and Azam Ahmed - The New York Times
go to original December 22, 2016

Mexico: Cause of Deadly Firework Explosion Still Unknown (Al Jazeera English)

Update: Mexico President Pena Nieto to Rebuild Tultepec Fireworks Market (BBC News)

Thousands of families depend on the fireworks industry for their living, and Tultepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City, is known throughout Mexico as a premier destination to stock up on pyrotechnic supplies.

During the high season, which runs from August to the end of the year, vendors at San Pablito will sell close to 100 tons of fireworks. During those five months they can earn up to 150,000 pesos, or nearly $8,000, the equivalent of a full year’s salary for a college-educated employee and more than 17 times the minimum wage.

In an interview with local radio Wednesday, the general secretary of Mexico State, José Manzur, said the first thing vendors asked him on Tuesday was when the market would be rebuilt. An estimated 30,000 people in a town of 150,000 made their living from fireworks.

They “said that this is an activity which is more than 200 years old and they asked for the help of the federal and state government to rebuild the market very soon,” Mr. Manzur said in the interview. “There is great consternation but there is also great hope that the federal and state government support them in this activity, which, yes, is dangerous.”



A basic question left unaddressed was how, after so many explosions, the market remained so dangerous. After the last major episode, in 2006, the market was upgraded to enhance safety, officials said, including a new layout with stores built of nonflammable material and separated by wide avenues of dirt.

In the prelude to the busiest time of year, local officials sought to assure Mexicans of the market’s safety. On Dec. 12, just over a week before the explosion, the municipality of Tultepec issued a statement by officials lauding the market for its top-notch safety standards. The document now reads like a tragic miscalculation, at best. At worst, it seems a vapid attempt to drum up business with false promises, paid for with the lives of more than 30 people, children among them.

Read the rest at The New York Times

Related: The 'Magical' Mexican Town Where Fireworks Are Life - and Too Often Death (The Washington Post)

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