At least two-thirds of the Corona Market is in danger of collapse, said Public Works Director Jose Luis Moreno Rojas. On Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the fire, police officers escorted 200 traders inside the burned out edifice to recover surviving belongings and merchandise. Fire Chief Trinidad Lopez said the decision to allow them inside the market so soon after the fire was a “risky” one.
The merchants, some of them in tears, said their losses ranged from 150,000 pesos to over one million pesos.
What happens to the 712 traders during a rebuild of the 1,600 square-meter market could become a thorny issue for the city government. Few, if any, had insurance to cover loss of inventory.
In the short-term, Guadalajara Mayor Ramiro Hernandez has agreed to allow the traders to set up shop in the Andador Pedro Loza, the popular pedestrian walkway that runs for 11 blocks between Manuel Acuña and Lopez Cotilla, parallel to Alcalde/16 de Septiembre.
Initially, the traders wanted permission to use the huge Plaza de la Liberacion between the Cathedral and Degollado Theater. But the mayor balked at allowing such a prominent public space to be transformed into a massive open-air tianguis at a time when he is trying to rid city center streets of unlicensed ambulant vendors.
Some 1,500 families are dependent on income generated by Corona Market traders each day. More than two-thirds of the stalls in the market sell some kind of food product or flowers; the rest mostly hawk clothing, apparel, accessories or electronics.
Several Jalisco representatives from the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) said Monday they will seek federal funding to assist affected parties in the short-term. State officials are also investigating which funds can be tapped into.
The market traders are not the only ones affected by the fire. The owner of an adjoining fabrics store said much of her stock is ruined after smoke from the blaze impregnated the material. Another 70 businesses claim to have been affected in one way or another.
The warning signs about the latent dangers within the Corona Market had been signaled for some time, it was revealed this week.
Natural gas tubes were tangled up with electrical wiring – a recipe for trouble – noted one report in 2013. Jalisco Attorney General Luis Carlos Najera said the investigation into the cause of the fire would be thorough and he would not be rushed.
Officials admit that gas and electrical installations at many of the 92 covered markets in the Guadalajara municipality – as well as others in Zapopan, Tlaquepaque and Tonala – are equally as dangerous.
Mayor Hernandez said councilors raised the maintenance budget for municipal markets from 1.7 million pesos in 2013 to 15 million this year. The infrastructure deficiencies at the markets should be laid at the door of previous city administrations rather than his own, he noted. Guadalajara City Hall receives annual income of 50 million pesos in “fees” from market concessionaires, who pay an average of 500 pesos a month for their stalls.
The Corona Market is the fourth largest covered market in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. The granddaddy is the Mercado Libertad (San Juan de Dios), a sprawling monster with more than 3,000 concessionaires. The substandard gas and electrical installations at the Libertad were labeled a “time bomb” by one Spanish-language newspaper this week.
This is the third time in its 122-year history that the Corona Market has suffered a fire and will be rebuilt. The same scenario occurred in 1910 and 1963.
The market is named for Jose Antonio “El Amo” Torres, a local hero of the War of Independence of 1810.