Incendio en Zihuatanejo

I've shared some videos and photos on my Facebook page that some of you may be interested in seeing.

There is still no final tally of the homes destroyed or of the number of people who lost their homes. What is known is that apparently there were not any human deaths, but there were deaths of animals that were tied up or otherwise unable to escape. Preliminary numbers indicate there were over 187 homes and over 400 people affected. The cause of the fire appears to have been fireworks in the hands of children that hit power lines.

The area that burned was mostly one of the colonias irregulares, an area that was part of our ecological zone but that was allowed to be invaded by irresponsible municipal authorities. This event underscores why such colonias should not be allowed and why urban planning is so important. Most of these folks are victims of unscrupulous people who seek to profit from other people's poverty and poor education. Hopefully they will now be relocated to a more adequate area where neighborhoods can be properly planned and where it's much easier to provide public services.

The mayor Jorge Sánchez was in the middle of the firefighting efforts, and his timely response was the best I've ever seen one of our mayors ever respond to a disaster of any kind. This is the biggest disaster to ever affect Zihuatanejo.