Fireworks factory explosions kill 24, in Mexican town where such disasters are common

First a horrific blast rocked the town of Tultepec, a place already notorious for deadly fireworks accidents, and emergency workers rushed in to rescue the injured.

Then, 20 minutes later, a new series of other explosions erupted around them, killing at least four firefighters, two police officers and a civil defence worker. In all, at least 24 people died and at least 49 were injured Thursday, according to the government of the State of Mexico.

“They wanted to save lives without knowing that the same thing was going to happen to them,” said Teresa Gonzalez, who heard the nearby blasts that began at 9.40am.

Tultepec, a municipality of about 130,000 people roughly an hour’s drive north of Mexico City, is famed for small workshops that produce many of the fireworks used throughout the region — and for repeated accidents that have killed at least 70 people in less than two years.

Guadalupe Romero, another town resident, stopped short of saying the town’s fireworks industry should be shut down, because he knows so many of the area’s families depend on it.

But he said that between a nearby propane gas plant and the fireworks production, “We are sitting on a time bomb.”