Blast Destroys Mexico Fireworks Market
Fire, Explosions Destroy Mexico’s Top Fireworks Market Just Before Independence Day
A fire engulfed Mexico’s most famous fireworks market Thursday, setting off a chain of explosions in a town northeast of the nation’s capital that destroyed hundreds of open-air stands just ahead of Independence Day celebrations.
There were no reports of deaths and only three serious injuries reported by late afternoon, Mexico State Civil Defense Director Roberto Vazquez told The Associated Press.
He said hundreds were treated for cuts and bruises or shock after the explosions at the marketplace in Tultepec, a few miles from Mexico City.
elipe Silva, a 43-year-old firework seller, said he saw a ball of fire coming his way.
“We all ran out of there, leaving everything behind,” he said. “Because saving your life was the most important thing.”
Vendors at the San Pablito Market said signs warned against smoking and lighting the merchandise. Despite these warnings, a customer who had just purchased fireworks lit one and threw it, sparking a series of explosions which destroyed almost every structure in an area of some 5,000 square yards.
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Huge firework blast rattles Mexican
A chain of explosions ripped through a sprawling market selling fireworks for Mexico's independence celebrations on Thursday, sending a huge column of smoke sky-high but causing only a handful of serious injuries.
Hundreds of blasts lasting for two hours reduced the market in the town of Tultepec, north-west of Mexico City, to a charred ruin. A large-scale tragedy was avoided only because stall owners ran for their lives as the explosions began.
Huddled with her children on the edge of a smoldering mass of twisted metal and smoldering wood the size of a football pitch and reeking
Fireworks explosion kills 7 and injures 4 in Mexico
Fireworks stored at a building that also illicitly sold gasoline exploded Saturday, killing seven people and injuring four, a local official said.
The building also housed video game machines, and five of the dead were children who frequented the video parlor on weekends, local authorities said.
The blast occurred in the tiny hamlet of Tlacotepec, high in the mountains of southern Guerrero state, about 75 miles north of Acapulco, Ayala Mata said.
Blood vessel problem sends Chirac to hospital
Paris -- French President Jacques Chirac has been hospitalized after suffering a blood vessel problem in
Firework factory explosion kills 5 in Mexico
An explosion at a fireworks factory in southern Mexico killed at least five people on Tuesday, an emergency services official said.
The civil protection agency said the factory in the town of Magdalena Apasco in Oaxaca state did not have a license to manufacture fireworks.
"Five people died there, all of them burned in the explosion," the official told Reuters by telephone.
Last week, three people were killed in a similar accident at another unlicensed fireworks plant in Oaxaca state.
Firework accidents are common, as Mexico produces masses of cheap pyrotechnics for Christmas and year-end festivities, as well
Church bells, fireworks mingle in Mexico
Vibrant atmosphere greets visitors to old city of Cholula
A lot has changed since this town was founded on a flat plain in the valley of Mexico.
But no wonder -- that founding was 1,800 years ago. Cholula's residents have learned over the years how to blend their ancient history with their modern lives to create a community that is deeply religious yet modern -- and often very noisy with fireworks, church bells and the music of religious processions.
Cholula, in central Mexico, is said to be the oldest continuously occupied town in all of North America. Anthropologists
Mexico Says 65 Miners Were Killed in Blast, Universal Reports
The 65 miners trapped inside a northern Mexico mine on Feb. 19 died instantly when an explosion elevated temperatures to more than 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 Fahrenheit), El Universal reported, citing Labor Minister Francisco Javier Salazar.
Salazar said yesterday in San Juan de Sabinas, Mexico, that the government will investigate the cause of the accident and the mine will stay closed for now, Universal reported. The mine is owned by Grupo Mexico SA.
The government had suspended rescue attempts on Feb. 24 because of dangerously high levels of lethal gas
All declared dead in Mexican mine blast
The 65 men trapped by a Mexican coal mine explosion six days ago cannot have survived their ordeal underground and are all dead, mine owners say.
The Grupo Mexico company said that while no bodies have yet been found, tests showed there was almost no oxygen inside the mine's shafts and tunnels and no hope of finding survivors from the explosion last Sunday.
"We are going to move on to the hard task of the physical recovery of our miners ... so the families can start their mourning," said Xavier Garcia, a senior executive at Grupo
Celaya is a city in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, located at 20.52°N, 100.82°W. It is the third most populous city in the state, with an estimated population of about 382,958 in 2000.
Explosion of inproperly protected gunpowder and fireworks warehouse in September 1999 killed over 60 people and badly injured over 300.
Corona Market: Guadalajara
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Plane crash in northern Iowa kills two
Two people were killed and two others injured when a small plane crashed Wednesday in a northeast Iowa cornfield, a federal official said.
The accident happened about 11 a.m. near Cresco just south of the Minnesota border. The victims names werent immediately released.
There is a plane down. We understand there were four aboard and two fatalities, Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago, said. (updated 2:49pm)
Iowa guardsmen to patrol U.S.-Mexico border
DES MOINES (AP) — Soldiers from the Iowa National Guard will patrol the U.S. border with Mexico as
Mexico's Ortiz Says Market `Correction Is Healthy'
Mexican Central Bank Governor Guillermo Ortiz described this week's decline in emerging market bonds and currencies as a ``healthy correction.''
``The markets can't always be going in only one direction,'' Ortiz told reporters after speaking at a conference on competitiveness in Mexico City today. ``It's healthy that there are corrections.''
Mexico's currency slipped 2.7 percent against the dollar in the last five days to 10.7675 pesos, its weakest level since Dec. 28, from 10.4753 pesos. Mexico's benchmark stock index fell 345.46, or 1.9 percent, to 18,205.61 as of 2:11 p.m. New York time
