CELAYA, Mexico -- The security guard had just dragged two women from the wreckage of a mammoth fireworks explosion when a second blast catapulted him into the asphalt 20 feet away.
The series of explosions -- at least three -- tore through a busy area of street stalls and shops near a downtown bus station in this central industrial town late Sunday, killing at least 56 people and injuring 348 -- many of them rescuers, like Hector Lara, who rushed to help the victims."The smoke turned everything black. There were things flying through the air and falling on top of me," the 21-year-old Lara said from his hospital bed, his face covered with purplish-black welts.
The blast was thought to have started in the back of a candy store where fireworks were sold, then more explosions were set off, possibly from gas tanks in nearby restaurants or other fireworks stashes.
Soldiers sealed off a large area of Celaya's downtown as they searched for more bodies. Officials said they were digging cautiously for fear of setting off unexploded powder.
Lara was guarding the main bus station when he heard the first explosion. He ran across the busy commercial street to the rubble of what had been a store, plunged into the dark smoke and began to pull out the injured.
"I saw a woman covered with blood, screaming that her son was dead and that she wanted to go into the shop to find him," he said.
Lara called for an ambulance, then became a victim himself. A second explosion minutes later threw him down the street and cut deep incisions into his entire body.
Lara's colleagues and the paramedics who responded to his call also fell victim to the explosion. As he recovered, a doctor told him one of his colleagues had died.
State officials said the dead included a policeman, two Red Cross workers, two firemen and a photographer for a local newspaper. The dead also included four children, according to the government news agency Notimex.