“Havana smells of a mixture of sewage and gas,” says Yaima, born 45 years ago near Prado street. “But for a few days the gas has felt much stronger,” adds the woman who must take a detour to gain access to her home, in a corner of the Caribbean hotel, which suffered an explosion last Tuesday that injured a worker. . After 48 hours of the accident, the area is still cordoned off and the pneumatic hammers do not stop making holes in the asphalt.
“I’d better go to Galiano because you can’t go up Prado,” clarifies the driver of a collective taxi that has had to change the route to drop off passengers in the central Parque de la Fraternidad. The surroundings of the accommodation where the explosion occurred on February 13 are “more full of holes than cheese”, ironically the man. The yellow tapes that prevent the passage, both for vehicles and pedestrians, extend several blocks around the place. The typical maintenance carts of the Manufactured Gas Company are seen on several corners and the police control the area.
“I’m going to wait for them to fix it because everything indicates that they are still looking for where the problem is”
“They say that everything is controlled but they do not stop breaking the street and the smell of gas is quite strong,” laments another neighbor, who this Wednesday morning preferred to leave his house, a tiny room in one of the many nearby cuarterías to hotel. Sitting on one of the marble benches on the Paseo del Prado, the man watched the drilling work carried out by employees dressed in reflective vests and helmets. “I’m going to wait for them to fix it because everything indicates that they are still looking for where the problem is.”
The work is complicated because the company is going through one of its worst moments in the last quarter of a century. The state entity, belonging to the Cuba Petróleo Union (Cupet), is unable to respond to reports of breaks or new service facilities due to a lack of galvanized pipes. Last November, this newspaper collected complaints from employees and customers who had been waiting for months to solve leaks or problems with the gas supply.
The state monopoly mainly uses galvanized metal pipe [con un recubrimiento de zinc] and with measures of three quarters or a half, but pieces are also needed to join these tubes, hoses to connect them to the kitchens and consumption counters. “The situation has worsened and to undertake any work we are having to dismantle ready-made installations and take the tubes to places where we have an emergency.” The explosion at the Caribbean hotel appears to have reached priority status. “Many eyes up” and the memory of the accident that cost the lives of 47 people in the Saratoga hotel explosion contribute to “the rush to fix it,” the worker details.
Meanwhile, the neighbors follow with their eyes the employees who move from one place to another and who raise their noses to detect if the danger is still in the air.
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