Fireworks, Begone!

The government of Mexico City has begun an ad campaign trying to discourage the use of fireworks.

"Let's celebrate without risks

for your family, your market, your city.

The holidays shine more without fire(works).

The unauthorized use of fireworks is prohibited in Mexico City, although the law is widely ignored and probably rarely enforced.  I could not find any statistics on how many people in the city are injured or killed each year from fireworks.  In 1988 a fireworks explosion at the Merced Market in central Mexico City resulted in 62 deaths and 82 injuries.  In 1999 an explosion in a fireworks warehouse in Celaya left 62 dead and 348 people injured.  The town of Tultepec on the outskirts of Mexico City is a center for the pyrotechnics industry, and in 2016 a massive explosion in the San Pablito Market in that town killed 36 and injured 84.  Among the injured were six children.  One girl, with burns over 90% of her body was sent to a Shriners' Hospital in Texas for treatment.

Fortunately, in the neighborhood of our apartment, fireworks are not a problem.  However, in the neighborhood where Alejandro's family lives the noise of firecrackers is a constant.  For every saint's day, every funeral, every holiday, religious or civil, firecrackers are set off, often in the wee hours of the morning.  Don't say that it is simply a part of Mexican culture that you have to accept.  It is part of SOME Mexicans' culture, but there are plenty of people, including Alejandro's family, who are sick and tired of not being able to get a good night's sleep.

I hope that this ad campaign is a sign of better enforcement of the existing laws.  Alejandro noticed that this year there were not as many firecrackers set off for the feast day of the Virgen of Guadalupe.  (Their home is just a couple blocks away from a route that many pilgrims take to the Basilica.)  I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I won't hold my breath.