Mazatlán Carnival is not only synonymous with music, parades and celebration.
For the rescuers who cover the event, it also means facing critical situations in which panic, alcohol and the crowd can trigger unexpected emergencies.
The stampede of 2010
Saúl Robles, commander of the Mazatlán Fire Department, remembers the most chaotic emergency he has ever dealt with: a stampede caused by the rumor of a shootout.
“I was covering the point by Agua Marina, and suddenly screams began to be heard and people began to run. We had to take shelter next to the truck because the crowd was desperate. We saw abandoned strollers, crying children, injured people who had jumped from the boardwalk onto the sand. We had to wait until the critical moment had passed to begin to attend to the injured,” he says.
Beyond the moments of panic, Robles has also witnessed tragedies.
“Not within the Carnival, but in the outskirts, when people return. I have had to attend accidents where people are trapped, where more than two people have died. There are cases in which we manage to rescue the occupants and they leave the hospital alive, but in many others they do not have that opportunity,” he says.
A fight with dozens of wounded
Approximately 15 years ago, the Mazatlán Carnival was the scene of a violent pitched battle between rival groups.
Salvador Gabriel Reyes, commander of Grupo Cobras Mazatlán, remembers that chaotic night, when between 40 and 50 people were wounded in the head and at least four were attacked with knives.
“Once there was a pitched battle between two rival groups of cholos who fought with stones. Easy, easy, about 40, 50 people were killed. First with blows, as always, and then with knives. About three, four people were wounded. But then they started throwing stones,” Reyes says.
The confrontation broke out in the area near the Devil’s Cave, where there are many stones that fell from the hill. In the confusion, people who were not involved in the fight were injured simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“A lot of people who had nothing to do with it, who were passing by at the time, were hurt. So we started to take them to where they were closest and most of them went to the Red Cross, because they were all battered, with heads hit,” he explains.
The rescuers, including those from Grupo Cobras, the Red Cross and Bomberos Mazatlán, worked in shifts without rest to transport the wounded to the hospitals. Reyes remembers that at the Red Cross the scene was chaotic, with stretchers occupied and dozens of people waiting for care.
“We arrived in three or four ambulances. Since the injuries were not so serious, they could sit down. When we arrived at the Red Cross, all the stretchers were occupied, all attending to patients for stitches. Outside there were about 10, 12 others waiting. We went in quickly and once inside I saw how all the nurses were attending to them.”
Given the saturation of the emergency service, some of the wounded arrived on their own, while others were transferred by the remaining ambulances to alternate hospitals.
“As we already saw that it was saturated there, that time even the Military Hospital, which was nearby, received other patients with broken bones for stitches,” he adds.
Despite the magnitude of the fight, no deaths were recorded. Reyes highlights that, although the stones were large and caused serious injuries, none of the wounded lost their lives.
“There were no human losses there. Everyone was injured by the stones, which were quite large and began to fall, but there were no deaths,” he concludes.
The most unusual rescue
In the middle of an emergency during a Carnival in Mazatlán, a Red Cross ambulance was moving slowly through the crowd.
Although people moved aside to make way for the rescue vehicle, no one stopped dancing and the music did not stop.
Abimelec Gómez, local coordinator of Socorros, remembers this scene as one of the most unusual of his career.
“It was curious because people were only moving around dancing, but without stopping enjoying the party. For us, it was an emergency, but for them it was part of the Carnival atmosphere,” he says.
The incident occurred when they went to the rescue of a person who fell in the rocky area. While the paramedics tried to maneuver through the crowd, the celebration continued.
“We had to be extremely careful not to hit anyone and still get to the patient on time,” adds Gómez.
Accidents at the Carnival of 2024
During the 2024 Mazatlán Carnival, emergency services responded to various situations, with the Red Cross registering the highest number of services, followed by the Fire Department and the Cobras group.
The local coordinator of the Mexican Red Cross Relief in Mazatlán, Abimelec Gómez, reports that his team provided 180 services during the days of the Carnival.
“180 services were provided during the days of Carnival last year, in 2024,” he says.
For its part, the Mazatlán Fire Department responded to between 56 and 58 emergencies, according to estimates by its staff. In comparison, in 2023 the number was 47.
In the case of the Cobras Mazatlán group, its representative Salvador Gabriel Reyes, points out that the number of services varies each year, depending on the situation in the carnival area.
“There have been carnivals that are very quiet and there are practically only fainting, drunk people, things like that. But in general terms, I would say that there are about 10 or 12 injuries in the Carnival,” he explains.
Most common emergencies
During the Mazatlán Carnival, emergency services mainly deal with falls, nervous breakdowns and cases of alcohol poisoning, reports Saúl Robles, commander of the Mazatlán Fire Department.
One of the most recurrent incidents occurs in the rocky area of Paseo del Centenario, where people in a state of intoxication lose their balance and fall.
“When people are drunk, they climb up on the fence where you sit and lose their balance and generally fall. The call is for people not to do this type of activity, to have a healthy fun and to dance here where they are not at risk of falling,” explains Robles.
The commander points out that these accidents have had fatal consequences in previous years.
“I have been involved in more than five rescues where we have had to take out lifeless people, especially in the heart area, from the heart area over there on Paseo del Centenario. That is where we have had to take out the most lifeless people, in that area.”
In general terms, young people are the ones who receive the most attention during Carnival, whether due to falls, vehicle crashes or alcohol poisoning.
“We have a lot of falls among young people because they are having fun, they fall and get fractures or they simply got careless. In the crashes, young people from 18 to 25, 30 years old also have accidents. Alcohol congestion happens a lot with many young people too, because they are out there in the Carnival area and they get too drunk and it gets too high,” he details.
In the case of older adults, the main reports are related to health problems, such as high blood pressure and uncontrolled glucose levels. “Everything that has to do with vital signs, such as blood pressure, glucose, well, we generally have them in geriatric patients,” says Robles.
Another common problem during Carnival is nervous breakdowns caused by the agglomeration of people, especially in areas with a high concentration of attendees.
“Last year, in the shield area, we had a crisis on the street on one side, because there was no room for people anymore, they couldn’t get out, neither backwards nor forwards. Then people started to get very nervous and started throwing themselves at each other and fell into that crisis. And several patients have already been treated for a conversion crisis,” he explains.
Emergency services reiterate the importance of taking precautions to avoid accidents and guarantee a safe celebration during the Mazatlán Carnival.
Source: oem
