Several of the survivors of the accident that occurred this May 7 at the Saratoga hotelsome even already medically discharged this Sunday, offered their testimony of what they experienced to state media.
“It seemed like a normal day at work. I was standing outside the hotel, I didn’t feel the noise of the explosion, but the dust was huge and a lot of blood ran through my body,” recalled Juan Carlos Rodríguez, a maintenance worker for the Gaviota group, who was providing services that day at the tourist facility.
At the time of the explosion, Juan Carlos remembers that he ran to the nearby Martí Theater, in the midst of the chaos caused by the incident. There he met police officers, who, together with the driver of a pedicab, loaded him up to take him to the polyclinic, counted to the website Cubadebate.
Meanwhile, Luis Rogelio, 58, was one of the first hospitalized to be discharged this Sunday. “I hope that all the colleagues get out of here well,” this hotel facility worker told the digital medium, who recognized the care offered at the hospital and said he was “very grateful” to the health personnel.
Guillermo Díaz Mederos, head of security at the Saratoga, does not remember exactly if he heard the noise of the explosion. He said that he was meeting with other workers, preparing details of the reopening of the hotel, scheduled for this May 10.
“Everything happened very quickly,” he said.
Rescue work continues at the Saratoga hotel, with 30 confirmed dead
“When I came to myself – recalled Díaz Mederos – I was under the rubble, I had no idea what was happening. When I managed to get out, I realized that he had wounds on his forehead, on his head. I had no strength, there were many colleagues next to me and I tried to help them. Someone told me to go outside and get help.”
Once outside the scene of the events, he was put in a car to the Calixto García Hospital, one of the first to receive those injured by the explosion. There he heard how many of the young doctors, hearing the news, went quickly to help the arriving wounded.
“That is a sign of the solidarity of Cubans,” he told Cubadebate.
Alexis Acosta, mayor of the municipality of Old Havana, said this morning that the rescue and rescue teams will finish their work when all the Saratoga workers appear, in addition to the neighbors who were still missing.
“The hotel has many divisions and that is why access to the place has slowed down,” he said in statements collected by the agency. EFE. The priority is “to at least rescue the bodies and be able to deliver them to the families who are very concerned,” said the local leader.
The rescue work already includes the basement and sub-basement area of the hotel, after part of the space was drained, where it is expected that the remaining workers of the place can be found, in addition to several of the tenants of the adjoining building, while attention is maintained to patients and relatives victims of the fatal event.
OnCuba / EFE
