Tultepec, Mexico— Three people were killed and sixteen others injured Thursday when a fireworks warehouse detonated in central Mexico, leveling the building and setting off a chain of secondary explosions.
The blast hit at 2:45 p.m. in the La Saucera fireworks zone outside Tultepec, State of Mexico. Workers were handling powder and assembling rockets for the Day of the Dead season. A spark near the storage area lit the first crate. Then everything went.
The explosion was heard eight kilometers away. Black smoke rose over the town. Houses within 300 meters lost windows. Cars parked outside were burned. The warehouse itself disappeared. Only concrete slabs remained.
Civil Protection crews and the Mexican Army arrived quickly. They found three bodies near what was the entrance. Sixteen injured were loaded into ambulances. Four were in critical condition with burns over 70 percent.
"This is a permitted facility, but permits do not prevent accidents when safety rules are ignored," a State of Mexico Civil Protection officer said on site. "We have warned about overstocking before the holidays."
Tultepec is the country's fireworks capital. It has suffered repeated disasters. In 2016, a market blast killed 42. In 2018, another warehouse blast killed 24. Residents live with risk because the industry feeds the town.
Investigators said the warehouse held four times the allowed amount of black powder. The owner was not on site at the time. He is now being sought for questioning. Neighbors said workers often smoked near storage.
Firefighters spent three hours cooling the area to prevent more blasts. Gas lines were shut off. The surrounding five warehouses were evacuated. Families were told not to return until Friday.
The state government announced an inspection of all 300 registered workshops in the zone next week.
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