Rescuers look for hotel blast victims
Natural gas leak apparent cause of blast at Havana’s Hotel Saratoga
Rescuers in Cuba’s capital searched yesterday to find survivors of an explosion that killed at least 25 people and devastated a luxury hotel that once hosted dignitaries and celebrities, including Beyonce and Jay-Z.
A natural gas leak was the apparent cause of Friday’s blast at Havana’s 96-room Hotel Saratoga. The 19thcentury structure in the city’s Old Havana neighbourhood did not have any guests at the time because it was undergoing renovations ahead of a planned Tuesday reopening after being closed.
The death toll rose to 25 yesterday, according to Orestes Llanez, coordinator of the Havana city government, according to the official Cubadebate news site. He said 22 had been identified, 18 residents of the capital and four from elsewhere in Cuba.
He said searchers has managed to reach the hotel’s basement in the hunt for possible survivors.
74 injured
Dr. Julio Guerra Izquierdo, chief of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, said at least 74 people had been injured. Among them were 14 children, according to a tweet from the office of President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
At least one survivor was found early yesterday in the shattered ruins of the hotel, and rescuers using search dogs clambered over huge chunks of concrete looking for more. Relatives of missing people remained at the site overnight. Others gathered at hospitals where the injured were being treated.
“I don’t want to move from here,’’ Cristina Avellar told The Associated Press near the hotel, whose outer walls were blown away by the explosion, leaving the interiors of many rooms exposed.
Avellar was waiting for news of Odalys Barrera, a 57-year-old cashier who has worked at the hotel for five years. She is the godmother of Barrera’s daughters and considers her like a sister.
Although no tourists were reported injured, the explosion is another blow to the country’s crucial tourism industry. Even before the coronavirus pandemic kept tourists away from Cuba, the country was struggling with tightened sanctions imposed by former US President Donald Trump and kept in place the Biden administration. Those limited visits by US tourists to the islands and restricted remittances from Cubans in the US to their families in Cuba.
The 19th-century structure in the city’s Old Havana neighbourhood did not have any guests at the time because it was undergoing renovations.
25 people have so far been killed in the gas explosion