Friday, April 4, 2025

Fire damages 188 stands at Mexico City’s San Cosme market

A fire on Sunday in Mexico City’s San Cosme market left 188 stands damaged and the entire market closed for the holiday season.

The cause of the fire, which started around 5:30am, is unknown, but a short circuit is believed to have been the culprit.

Firefighters from five different boroughs were able to put the fire out by 8:00am, but not before it had burned 1,000 square meters of the market.

Over 150 residents in neighboring houses and apartments were forced to evacuate their homes while police set up a safety perimeter around a gas station adjacent to the market.

No deaths or injuries have been reported, but the vendors now find themselves in a difficult situation during one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year.

To offset the hardship, Economic Development Secretary Fadlala Akabani Hneide requested that the Labor Secretariat provide the vendors with unemployment benefits and relocate them to the street to the west of the market to mitigate the loss of  December sales.

Monthly unemployment benefits of 2,500 pesos (US $132) will be disbursed to all 252 of the market vendors for six months.

The Cuauhtémoc borough, in which the market is located, will provide tarps for the temporary street stalls and will have discussions with neighboring residents to request that they support the provisional solution.

Sources: El Financiero (sp), El Universal (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum stands at the presidential podium looking out at an audience off-camera with her fist raised and her mouth open as if cheering. Behind her is a wall with the words in Spanish: Plan Mexico, Strenghtening the Economy and Well-Being, Mexico City April 3, 2025.

Sheinbaum unveils an even more ambitious version of her transformative Plan México

9
Sheinbaum said the projects she announced as part of Plan México will bring about more well-paid employment, less poverty and inequality, greater investment and production and more innovation.
A clear-cut strip of land cuts through the jungle along the Maya Train route in Yucatán

Government promises restoration plan for Maya Train environmental damage

1
Government officials said the track's builders will be responsible for funding a restoration effort that includes reforestation and improving natural migration corridors.
Cans of Cororna Extra beer lying on a bed of large ice cubes

Trump announces new US tariffs on Mexican… beer

15
Mexico didn't end up on Donald Trump's "liberation day" list of enemy countries, although the U.S. did impose tariffs on a surprising Mexican item: beer in cans.