# Massive fireworks explosion at Mexican market



## Perrier (Dec 18, 2016)

Massive fireworks explosion in Mexican market leaves 10 dead and dozens injured including children - Mirror Online



So sad.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

Sad - but at the same time I don't understand why they let fireworks - and pyrotechnics - to be sold to unlicensed people, 

Of all the things I could complain about of our life it Mexico - pyrotechnics is way on top.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Gatos said:


> Sad - but at the same time I don't understand why they let fireworks - and pyrotechnics - to be sold to unlicensed people,
> 
> Of all the things I could complain about of our life it Mexico - pyrotechnics is way on top.


Unlicensed people? Fireworks is a way of life here. 

I bet a vendor was cooking hotdogs, hamburgers, or tacos right where they were selling the fireworks.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

In Ajijic when the cohete man fell with his cohetes and cohetes killed his grand-son the man was smoking , tripped and fell..
In Zinacantan the house of the guy making cohetes blew up the house.and on and on.. it is life in Mexico.


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## DiverSailor123 (Sep 17, 2016)

Happens NOB too.. 1983 maybe 84 Seabrook NH .. Factory blows up kills numerous employees... Someone brought in a radio. ( that wasn't allow) ..and found a way to plug it in and when he turned it on... Killed himself and numerous others Trailers too close together, caused a chain reaction.. Those of us ( several thousand) working at Seabrook Station thought we had been attacked..


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

The whole thing is very sad..every time it happens. Unfortunately it happens way too often.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

According to an article in El País, this market is licensed by the government to sell fireworks to the public and is the largest one in Mexico, with 300 stalls. There was a similar explosion in September of last year, which left 129 wounded.

Tultepec: Decenas de muertos en la explosión de un mercado de pirotecnia en México | Internacional | EL PAÃ�S

Here's a more informative article from The Guardian, which provides a cultural/historical context for the tragedy:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/20/mexico-fireworks-market-explosion


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## Perrier (Dec 18, 2016)

Our dog is not a fan of fireworks. She can here them miles away and finds the room with the most pillows and buries herself under the pillows. 

I know Canada stoppped selling fireworks at this level years ago. It may take México a long time to figure out what to do.

To those who died may they RIP


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## Orfin (Sep 26, 2016)

Never live in or around a mega city where they need mega concentrations of stock to supply the needs. Same risk is there for chemicals and other things.
Mexico is a mega city by any global standard. In the top 5 i think and used to be in the top 2 or 3 until china reconfigured many cities almost overnight.
They love any reason to have a banging procession with heavy artillery sounding every 20-30 seconds as they ply every block in town. Same thing in my experiences all over central america.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

and in Sain and in China for CHinese New Year and in many other countries I suspect..


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## DiverSailor123 (Sep 17, 2016)

I Miss Mexico


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

citlali said:


> In Ajijic when the cohete man fell with his cohetes and cohetes killed his grand-son the man was smoking , tripped and fell..
> In Zinacantan the house of the guy making cohetes blew up the house.and on and on.. it is life in Mexico.


That does not happen anywhere but in Mexico? I remember quite a few incidents in...many other Countries


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> That does not happen anywhere but in Mexico? I remember quite a few incidents in...many other Countries


I have the feeling, Gary, that these kinds of accidents are much more frequent in Mexico than in countries with better-enforced regulations of fireworks use.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> I have the feeling, Gary, that these kinds of accidents are much more frequent in Mexico than in countries with better-enforced regulations of fireworks use.


10 Worst Fireworks Disasters Ever (fireworks, july 4th, explosions, explosives, disasters, fire,) - ODDEE


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

GARYJ65 said:


> 10 Worst Fireworks Disasters Ever (fireworks, july 4th, explosions, explosives, disasters, fire,) - ODDEE


It looks like the score for countries in the top ten is:
China - 1
Denmark - 1
India - 1
Mexico - 1
Netherlands - 1
US - 5

Normalized for the differing populations of the countries, the scores would be:
China - 0.00073 per million population
Denmark - 0.18 per million
India - 0.00077 per million
Mexico - 0.0084 per million
Netherlands - 0.058 per million
US - 0.015 per million


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> That does not happen anywhere but in Mexico? I remember quite a few incidents in...many other Countries


Nowhere in this thread has anyone said that these kinds of accidents happen only in Mexico. It's natural for us to be concerned about this tragic event since this forum is dedicated to life in this country. Why bring up similar events that have taken place in other countries?

One thing that makes this so disturbing is that there have been other catastrophic firework explosions in this town in the past, meaning that their cause has not been dealt with properly by the authorities.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

TundraGreen said:


> It looks like the score for countries in the top ten is:
> China - 1
> Denmark - 1
> India - 1
> ...


I appreciate your attempt at being "statistical" about it, but I really don't think the "click bait" article merits such scientific rigour. A quick internet search shows many other incidents resulting in multiples deaths at fireworks factories in China, Europe, Latin America, which are not mentioned in this article. Rating a sparkler setting off a bag of fireworks in someone's back yard, injuring several but thankfully with no deaths, as one of the "worst" fireworks disasters in history simply shows the US centric focus of this list. Of the five incidents mentioned in the US, three are cases of individuals mishandling fireworks in their own backyard. Of the 2 other cases, one was simply mischief and/or stupidity (a man deliberately lighting a large firework in a firework vendor's tent, setting off a chain reaction, fortunately no one killed). The other was more tragic, with 4 men dying when working on a truck packed with fireworks when it exploded. 

There are many similar individual injuries and deaths in Mexico which are simply not represented in the linked article (and likely in many or most cases, never even reported). The incidents in the article that may merit classification as among the "worst" disasters include the 40 killed in a fireworks factory in India (2012), the 26 killed when a truck carrying fireworks exploded on a bridge in China, killing 26, another truck with fireworks exploding in Mexico, killing 16 (2013), and 23 killed in Netherlands when a fire started in a fireworks factory (2000). Of course, the most recent disaster in Mexico is near the top of the list in terms of lives lost.

Injuries and deaths from fireworks are also common in Guatemala. The click bait article makes no mention of the fireworks explosion in a market in Guatemala City in 2006, which killed 15 (likely started by a lit cigarette one of the vendors threw out). There are also countless fireworks "cottage industries" in Guatemala, poorer families making fireworks in their homes with little or no safety precautions. Reports of explosions causing injury and death at these places are commonplace. Often those killed include minors working in these precarious conditions, or simply children in the household. I've had a couple of scares myself, the worst being when a lit "cherry bomb" landed in the hood of my young son's jacket. Fortunately it was a dud and fizzled out. At that point we decided to stop watching the neighbourhood fireworks and go inside...

Gary, I'm not trying to slam Mexico or fireworks. I love both. In Canada, fireworks for individuals can only be purchased and set off 2 times per year - Victoria Day in May and Canada Day on July 1. Also firecrackers are prohibited. This naturally means there will be fewer fireworks related injuries and deaths, simply because there is much less use of fireworks, and regulations around their use are much stricter.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

ojosazules11 said:


> I appreciate your attempt at being "statistical" about it, but I really don't think the "click bait" article merits such scientific rigour. A quick internet search shows many other incidents resulting in multiples deaths at fireworks factories in China, Europe, Latin America, which are not mentioned in this article. Rating a sparkler setting off a bag of fireworks in someone's back yard, injuring several but thankfully with no deaths, as one of the "worst" fireworks disasters in history simply shows the US centric focus of this list. Of the five incidents mentioned in the US, three are cases of individuals mishandling fireworks in their own backyard. Of the 2 other cases, one was simply mischief and/or stupidity (a man deliberately lighting a large firework in a firework vendor's tent, setting off a chain reaction, fortunately no one killed). The other was more tragic, with 4 men dying when working on a truck packed with fireworks when it exploded.
> 
> There are many similar individual injuries and deaths in Mexico which are simply not represented in the linked article (and likely in many or most cases, never even reported). The incidents in the article that may merit classification as among the "worst" disasters include the 40 killed in a fireworks factory in India (2012), the 26 killed when a truck carrying fireworks exploded on a bridge in China, killing 26, another truck with fireworks exploding in Mexico, killing 16 (2013), and 23 killed in Netherlands when a fire started in a fireworks factory (2000). Of course, the most recent disaster in Mexico is near the top of the list in terms of lives lost.
> 
> ...


All good points. I noted the sleaziness of the source, but couldn't find a better list in the few minutes I spent looking. In addition, even if it were a valid list, tabulating statistics based on a single or a few incidents, is pretty flakey.


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## DiverSailor123 (Sep 17, 2016)

China's and India's populations make their participation irrelevant to that portion of the study.. Needless to say fireworks are dangerous... We lived at one time in Illinois, and they prohibited them and had very few incidents.. ( There is always some clown who will drive hours to get them and spend more on them that he has ever spent at the dentist : ) Now we live in SW Florida and they are legal and a few times a year we see some pretty large temporary "tent" stores selling them and we read in our papers often about incidents and some of the include mutilation and on rare occasion death.


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