HAVANA –
Rescuers in Cuba’s capital searched through rubble overnight to find more victims of an explosion that killed at least 22 people and injured dozens at a luxury hotel that once housed dignitaries and celebrities, including Beyoncé and Jay. -Z.
A natural gas leak was the apparent cause of Friday’s explosion at the 96-room Hotel Saratoga in Havana. The 19th-century structure in the city’s Old Havana neighborhood had no guests at the time because it was undergoing renovations ahead of a planned reopening on Tuesday.
Relatives of the missing people remained at the scene Friday night as rescuers sifted through the debris. Others gathered at hospitals where the wounded were being treated.
“I don’t want to move from here,” Cristina Avellar told The Associated Press near the hotel, whose exterior walls were destroyed by the blast, exposing the interiors of many rooms.
Avellar was waiting for news from 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 as a sister to her.
Although no tourists were reported injured, the blast is the latest blow to the country’s crucial tourism industry.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic kept tourists away from Cuba, the country was already struggling with sanctions imposed by former US President Donald Trump and kept the Biden administration in place. The sanctions limited visits by American tourists to the islands and restricted remittances from Cubans in the United States to their families in Cuba.
Tourism had begun to revive somewhat earlier this year, but the war in Ukraine has halted a boom in Russian visitors, who accounted for nearly a third of tourists to Cuba last year.
The first floors of the hotel appeared to have sustained most of the damage from Friday’s blast. The missing walls revealed mattresses, furniture, hanging glass, tattered curtains, and dust-covered cushions.
Dr. Julio Guerra Izquierdo, head of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, said that at least 74 people were injured. Among them were 14 children, according to a tweet from the office of President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Cuban Health Minister José Ángel Portal told The Associated Press that the number of injured could rise as the search continues. Fire Department Lt. Col. Noel Silva said rescuers were still searching for a large group of people who might be under the rubble.
The search was to continue through the night. The wrecked hotel remained cordoned off as workers operated heavy machinery to lift huge chunks of walls and masonry and trucks loaded with debris left the scene. Firefighters and rescuers worked inside the rubble.
The authorities refused to reveal the names of the dead, even to their relatives. Authorities put up emergency lights at the site and brought in trained dogs to help with the search.
The rescuers refused to answer questions because the authorities had ordered them not to do so to avoid confusion.
A school of 300 students next to the hotel was evacuated. Havana Governor Reinaldo García Zapata said five of the students suffered minor injuries.
The iconic hotel is about 100 meters (110 yards) from Cuba’s Capitol building, which had broken glass and damaged stonework after the blast.
The hotel was first renovated in 2005 as part of the Cuban government’s revival of Old Havana and is owned by the Cuban military’s commercial tourism arm, Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA. The company said it was investigating the cause of the explosion and did not respond to an email from the AP seeking more details about the hotel and the renovation it was undergoing.
In the past, the Hotel Saratoga has been used by visiting personalities and political figures, including high-ranking US government delegations. Beyonce and Jay-Z stayed there in 2013.
Garcia Zapata said structures adjacent to the hotel were being evaluated, including two badly damaged apartment buildings. Díaz-Canel said that the families in the affected buildings had been moved to safer places.
Photographer Michel Figueroa said he was walking past the hotel when “the explosion knocked me to the ground and my head still hurts… Everything happened very quickly.”
Concerned relatives of people who had been working at the hotel turned up at a hospital to search for their loved ones. Among them was Beatriz Céspedes Cobas, who in tears was looking for her sister.
“She had to work today. She’s a housekeeper,” he said. “I work two blocks away. I felt the noise and at first I didn’t even associate” the explosion with the hotel.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is scheduled to arrive in Havana for a visit on Saturday night and Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard has said the visit will still take place.
Reference-www.ctvnews.ca