By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
HAVANA (AP) — A robust explosion apparently brought on by a pure gasoline leak killed a minimum of 22 individuals, together with a baby, and injured dozens Friday when it blew away outer partitions from a luxurious lodge within the coronary heart of Cuba’s capital.
No vacationers have been staying at Havana’s 96-room Hotel Saratoga as a result of it was present process renovations, Havana Gov. Reinaldo García Zapata informed the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
“It’s not a bomb or an attack. It is a tragic accident,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who visited the positioning, mentioned in a tweet.
Dr. Julio Guerra Izquierdo, chief of hospital providers on the Ministry of Health, informed reporters that a minimum of 74 individuals had been injured. Among them have been 14 youngsters, in accordance with a tweet from Díaz-Canel’s workplace.
Díaz-Canel mentioned households in buildings close to the lodge affected by the explosion had been transferred to safer places.
Cuban state TV reported the explosion was brought on by a truck that had been supplying pure gasoline to the lodge, however didn’t present particulars on how the gasoline ignited. A white tanker truck was seen being faraway from the positioning as rescue employees hosed it down with water.
The blast despatched smoke billowing into the air across the lodge with individuals on the road staring in awe, one saying “Oh my God,” and vehicles honking their horns as they sped away from the scene, video confirmed. It occurred as Cuba is struggling to revive its key tourism sector that was devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuba’s nationwide well being minister, José Ángel Portal, informed The Associated Press the variety of injured might rise because the search continues for individuals who could also be trapped within the rubble of the nineteenth century construction within the Old Havana neighborhood of town.
“We are still looking for a large group of people who may be under the rubble,” Lt. Col. Noel Silva of the Fire Department mentioned.
A 300-student college subsequent to the lodge was evacuated. García mentioned 5 of the scholars suffered minor accidents.
Police cordoned off the realm as firefighters and rescue employees toiled contained in the wreckage of the emblematic lodge about 110 yards (100 meters) from Cuba’s Capitol constructing.
The lodge was first renovated in 2005 as a part of the Cuban authorities’s revival of Old Havana and is owned by the Cuban army’s tourism enterprise arm, Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA. The firm mentioned it was investigating the reason for the blast and didn’t instantly reply to an e mail in search of extra particulars in regards to the lodge and the renovation it was present process.
The Hotel Saratoga has been used continuously by visiting VIPs and political figures, together with high-ranking U.S. authorities delegations. Beyoncé and Jay-Z stayed there throughout a 2013 go to to Cuba.
Photographer Michel Figueroa mentioned he was strolling previous the lodge when “the explosion threw me to the ground, and my head still hurts…. Everything was very fast.”
Worried family members of people that had been working on the lodge confirmed up at a hospital within the afternoon to search for them. Among them was Beatriz Céspedes Cobas, who was tearfully looking for her sister.
“She had to work today. She is a housekeeper,” she mentioned. “I work two blocks away. I felt the noise, and at first, I didn’t even associate” the explosion with the lodge.
Yazira de la Caridad mentioned the explosion shook her house a block from the lodge: “The whole building moved. I thought it was an earthquake.”
Besides the pandemic’s impression on Cuba’s tourism sector, the nation was already scuffling with the sanctions imposed by the previous U.S. President Donald Trump which were saved in place the Biden administration. The sanctions restricted visits by U.S. vacationers to the islands and restricted remittances from Cubans within the U.S. to their households in Cuba.
Tourism had began to revive considerably early this yr, however the struggle in Ukraine crimped a growth of Russian guests, who accounted for nearly a 3rd of the vacationers arriving in Cuba final yr.
The explosion occurred as Cuba’s authorities hosted the ultimate day of a tourism conference within the iconic seaside city of Varadero aimed toward drawing buyers.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is scheduled to reach in Havana for a go to late Saturday and Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard mentioned the go to would nonetheless happen.
Mayiee Pérez mentioned she rushed to the lodge after receiving a name from her husband, Daniel Serra, who works at a international alternate store contained in the lodge.
She mentioned he informed her: “I am fine, I am fine. They got us out.” But she was unable to achieve him after that.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”