Pyrotechnic toros: Devotion to a dangerous craft

Months after a fatal explosion tore through a fireworks market in Tultepec, Mexico, the town honored its patron saint by exploding hundreds of colorful bull figures rigged with fireworks. The blast at the San Pablito pyrotechnics market unleashed a powerful chain-reaction that burst through the market in a cascade of explosions.

Forty-two people died and 70 were injured when tonnes of fireworks ignited at a market inTultepec, on the northern outskirts of Mexico City a few days before Christmas last year.

Tultepec returned to its flamboyant but risky ways, marking the Catholic festival of San Juan de Dios, with thousands of revelers running among exploding fireworks and hundreds of giant burning paper bulls.

Known as the "firework capital of Mexico," the village has specialized in making explosive powder since the 19th century. Local authorities say it exports $4 million (3.8 million euros) worth of fireworks a year to Central America and the United States. Also, an estimated 30,000 people in Tultepec work in the fireworks business.

Fireworks explode off a wheeled paper bull rigged with fireworks in the middle of the packed town square as delighted revelers yell "Fire, fire!" Firefighters, ambulances and security forces were out in force in case of accidents.

Eighteen-year-old local powder maker Uriel Gonzales says: "It's worth the risk of dying for the beauty of the craft." The San Pablito fireworks market has exploded on three occasions over the past 12 years...