An explosion this Monday at the Caribbean hotel in Old Havana has caused at least one injury, according to official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso and reproduced caribbean channel. The injured man is in the Calixto García hospital, without his condition being known.
The official media attributed the cause to a “gas leak”, warning that the information was “to be confirmed”. According to testimonies collected by 14ymedio at the scene, the “gas leak” could have come from the building next door, but authorities say the “causes are still being investigated.”
In a published note by Cubadebate, It is specified, with a source in Carlos Manuel Cabanes, director of the Islazul Habana branch, which owns the hotel, that the explosion took place at 10:40 am, “in an out-of-order room located on the fifth floor of the building [sic, aunque en realidad la planta afectada fue la tercera]where there were no clients and they worked on decoration and setting”.
The text goes on to explain that the deflagration happened “when one of the workers of the MSME that he was carrying out maintenance work” entered the room and that immediately after “the electricity was cut off and the personnel were evacuated for safety”. On that floor, they clarify, “there were no customers”.
The building, with 38 rooms and located on Prado and Colón, was evicted. The official media assure that “no significant structural damage has been reported and the situation is under control on the spot”, but that they closed the access due to the danger that some element of the construction could fall”. On the façade you can see a window destroyed by the explosion and others affected, and glass that fell into the street.
“The hotel did not suffer any type of affectation in its vital system and as soon as we have the confirmation of the colleagues, we will rejoin the planned activities,” Cabanes also declared.
The vicinity of the Caribbean hotel are taken by firefighters, health workers and police, as this newspaper has verified. The operation spread through the adjacent streets and, less than two hours after the explosion, the closure reached the Central Park.
The Caribbean is a small hotel and has been in decline for years. In the second half of the 1990s, when it was mandatory to book a hotel before staying at a private house, it was frequently used by tourists, given its low price, to complete the process while they stayed elsewhere.
A few blocks away is the Saratoga Hotel, the scene of one of the most serious events that occurred in Cuba in recent years, when a burston May 6, 2022, caused the death of 47 people.
That accident, about which the authorities promised an investigation of which little or nothing has been revealed, apparently occurred due to improper handling in the transfer of liquefied gas from a truck to the establishment’s tanker.
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