Cristina and her friend César, who was seriously injured, were walking through Havana when the blast hit them
The journey to Havana of a young couple living in As Pontes could not have ended more tragically. She, 29, born in Viveiro and a bank employee, is one of those killed in the explosion of the Saratoga luxury hotel while he, 31, is in serious condition following surgery. Cristina and César were walking down the street when they were hit by the explosion of the iconic establishment on Friday, basically due to a gas leak from a tanker truck on duty at the time. Workers and a team of managers were at the hotel preparing the property for reopening next Tuesday after being closed for two years due to the pandemic.
The balance of deaths had this Saturday of 32 people died, including four children and a pregnant woman. 80 injured were also counted. But these figures are not definitive, because all night from Friday and into the day of this Saturday, the emergency services worked piecemeal inside the collapsed building in search of bodies and especially possible survivors.
In the morning it was learned that a Spanish tourist was among the dead. Government President Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences on Twitter: “Tragic news reaches us from Cuba. A Spanish tourist has died and another Spanish citizen has been seriously injured after the explosion of the Saratoga hotel. All our love for their families and those of all the victims and injured. Our support also to the Cuban people.
Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, quickly went to the scene and emphasized from the first moment that it was an “unfortunate accident” and ruled out that “it was a bomb or an attack”. In this way he wanted to put an end to the rumors unleashed on social networks that prompted the attacks on several hotels in the 1990s at the behest of Cuban exiles.
While he indicated that a commission of inquiry has been set up to clarify the facts, the claim being considered is that the cause of the explosion was a gas leak. At the time of the event, around 11 a.m. Friday – 5 p.m. in Spain – a liquefied gas tanker was supplying the hotel. One of the hypotheses investigated is that there was a tear in the hose of the truck.
The explosion of the Saratoga, an emblematic hotel very close to the Capitol, caused part of the seven-story building to collapse and the facade of the first three floors to dislodge, triggering an avalanche of debris on the sidewalk.
Firefighters, police officers and emergency services quickly rushed to the scene of the incident and took those affected to several hospitals. A group of specialists then began to clear the area in search of possible victims.
Work went on all day on Saturday. After removing the debris, the search focused on the inside of the building. “My daughter works there at the Saratoga. She’s been there (under the rubble) since Friday at 8 am and I don’t know anything about her,” Yaumara Cobas yelled inconsolably. “He’s not in the morgue or the hospital.”
A search of the top floors of the hotel found no bodies or survivors, a firefighter at the scene said. He explained that the search was focused on the ground floor and basement, from which a woman had called for help on Friday. According to the state group Gaviota, which owns the hotel, the establishment had a team of workers dedicated to the development of the property and other managers, who attended a meeting.
The president, Díaz-Canel, highlighted the work being carried out by the rescue and rescue teams. “It is very unfortunate what happened, the destruction, especially the loss of life and also the injured, but I want to emphasize once again the speed with which the population and the institutions were mobilized,” he said.
Built in 1880, the Saratoga was an emblem of Old Havana, which had welcomed celebrities such as American artists Beyoncé and Madonna or the Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. The reopening next Tuesday was an event within the reactivation that tourism in Cuba is going through, after two years of restrictions due to the pandemic. The Caribbean country has hosted more than 450,000 tourists between January and April, including Cristina and César.
Source: La Verdad
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