Five Canadians Killed Others Injured in Mexico Explosion

[George Wallace]

With all the deaths of Canadians in Mexico in recent years one wonders if it really is a place to vacation these days. 

This breaking news of an explosion in a resort hotel, possibly a gas leak in the lobby.

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/canadians_at_site_of_mexican_hotel_blast/0fb52fc4

Canadians at site of Mexican hotel blast
14/11/2010 3:33:52 PM

CTV.ca News Staff

LINK

At least six people have died and more than a dozen have been injured in an explosion at a Mexican hotel where dozens of Canadians were staying, authorities say.

The blast occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. local time near one of the lobbies at the Grand Riviera Princess Hotel in Playa del Carmen.

Francisco Alor, attorney general for the state of Quintana Roo, told The Associated Press that initial reports suggest three of the dead may be Canadian tourists, while two others appear to be hotel employees. The sixth victim has yet to be identified.

Alor said the explosion is believed to have been caused by a gas line that ruptured under the lobby's floor.

At least 60 Canadian tourists from Ontario's Kitchener-Waterloo region were staying at the hotel.

Ray Hamblin from Toronto was in the adjacent restaurant when the blast occurred.

"Everybody was enjoying their breakfast and basically there was a loud explosion," Hamblin told CTV News Channel in a telephone interview from Mexico Sunday afternoon. "It sounded like lightning struck right beside you."

The blast blew out 12-foot glass windows separating the lobby from the restaurant, Hamblin said.

In a video of the aftermath posted on YouTube, part of a roof around one of the resort's buildings has collapsed, and glass and debris are scattered along common areas. Victims can also be seen being loaded onto ambulances that line a driveway.

Mark Bingeman said he witnessed people being pulled out of the debris, covered in cement dust.

"There didn't appear to be any structural damage" to the building, he said. "But certainly everything was just devastated inside."

The explosion left a four-foot deep crater in the ground, according to guest James Gaade.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said officials are monitoring reports of the explosion.

Lisa Monette told The Canadian Press that the consulate in Playa del Carmen is prepared to provide consular assistance to any Canadians staying at the hotel.

"We are aware that a number of Canadians are at the Grand Riviera Princess and are endeavouring to determine if any have been affected," Monette said.

Anyone seeking information about Canadians who may have been staying at the Grand Riviera Princess can call DFAIT at 1-800-387-3124.

With files from The Associated Press

 

[HavokFour]

One has to really wonder who in their right mind would still travel to Mexico when these incidents are happening almost on a monthly basis now.

I want to say Darwinism, but that's not quite right.

 

[PMedMoe]

Well, to be fair, a gas leak could happen anywhere.  It's all the murders in conjunction with drug deals and muggings that is more worrisome.

 

[mariomike]

Well, to be fair, a gas leak could happen anywhere.  It's all the murders in conjunction with drug deals and muggings that is more worrisome.

We miss the good old days when Montezuma's revenge was our greatest concern. 

 

[PMedMoe]

I spent a week in Mexico in March and the only "Montezuma's revenge" I got was in the form of a hangover.  ;D

 

[tomahawk6]

My prayers to the families of those killed and injured.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/14/dead-injured-mexico-hotel-explosion/?test=latestnews?test=latestnews

A powerful explosion Sunday likely caused by an accumulation of gas killed 7 people, including five Canadian tourists, at a large resort hotel on Mexico's Caribbean coast, authorities said.

Two Mexican employees of the 676-room hotel Grand Riviera Princess hotel in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun, were killed in the explosion, said Francisco Alor, attorney general of Quintana Roo, where the resorts are located.

Two other Canadians suffered severe injuries and were listed in critical condition. Ten others, including two U.S. citizens and eight Mexican employees of the hotel, suffered less serious wounds and were listed as stable.

Alor described a horrific scene in which the floor of the building was basically hurled through the ceiling by the force of the explosion, blowing out windows and sending fragments of aluminum window and ceiling panels frame over a wide area.

"Everyone said their hotel room shook. The glass at neighboring restaurants all cracked and blew out. The tiki hut that was in the area, that was on fire," said James Gaade, a resident of St. Catharines, Ontario, who was walking on the beach when he heard a loud explosion and saw smoke coming from the resort's premium platinum lounge. "There was a large crater in the area, debris."

Alor said the dead include four men and a woman, but offered no further information on the victims. Playa del Carmen Civil Defense director Jesus Puc said the male Canadian fatalities included a nine-year-old boy, a 51-year-old man and two other men between 25 and 30 years old.

Canada's Foreign Affairs and International Trade department confirmed in a statement that one Canadian was killed, adding "we have received unconfirmed reports that three Canadian citizens are missing and seven are injured. No further information is available at this time."

"On behalf of all Canadians, the Government of Canada extends its sympathies to the families and friends of those who lost their lives."

The resort was hosting a large number of Canadians from various provinces, including at least one wedding and a company vacation.

The blast occurred on the ground floor of one of a dozen or so buildings that make up the sprawling hotel, and left a crater a yard (meter) deep inside the building.

It also blew out windows and hurled pieces of paving, glass and aluminum about 50 yards (meters) onto the palm-fringed lawn of the compound.

The area, next to the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, was cordoned off and about 30 Mexican army soldiers stood guard around the hotel.

Alor and other officials, including Puc and local Red Cross director Ricardo Portugal, said the initial investigations suggest the gas that exploded beneath the building was apparently not for cooking, but rather a mix of gases from a nearby swamp.

Alor told local media that investigations were under way to see if the hotel building, which sat on a concrete pad on a swampy area near the beach, had been properly constructed.

"The report suggests an accumulation of gases produced by decomposing organic material in the subsoil, and this gas produced the explosion," Alor said.

"Expert examiners and civil defense personnel will have to determine if the underground space filled with swampy water that remained in this zone when the building was constructed four years ago, could have generated this type of gases."

Officials said no gas lines were located in the area where the blast occurred.

Gaade said one of the guests providing first aid told him that three people from Toronto were injured. He estimated that 50 to 70 percent of the guests at the resort were Canadians.

Pete Travers, program director of 570 News Radio in Kitchener, Ontario, was at the hotel with a large group of Canadians from nearby Waterloo. He said all members of his group were accounted for.

Travers recalled hearing a huge crash before he went down for breakfast. He stepped into the hallway to find people running from the blast site as word of an explosion rippled across the resort.

"There was quite a lot of chaos," Travers said. He and a few other guests rushed to grab deck chairs from the pool area to use as makeshift stretchers.

 

[karl28]

As it is True that a gas leak can happen any where . I still think I will be keeping my summer Hollidays close to home and stuff like Camping in near by provincial parks .

 

[Veovius]

Gas leak?  No gas lines in the area?  Possibly underground swampy water?  Riiiiight......

 

[MPwannabe]

I think anyone going to Mexico right now for any reason is kind of putting their ass on the line...

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Gas leak?  No gas lines in the area?  Possibly underground swampy water?  Riiiiight...... 

Sometimes the Fates conspire against you. Lets face it, you could be holidaying in Quebec crossing an overpass and it collapses because of bad construction/maintenance.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Apparently, Mexican authorities are opening a homicide investigation to see if the hotel owners are culpable.

 

[HavokFour]

Apparently, Mexican authorities are opening a homicide investigation to see if the hotel owners are culpable.

No one wants to say the B word, then.

 

[Old Sweat]

It seems to me there are technical details that would indicate if it was a gas explosion or an explosive detonation. Do you have anything to support the suggestion that it was the latter?

 

[Haletown]

no worries  - I  am departing next week ... .  the forecast is for 34 degrees & 80+ degree water temps.

Can't wait to get to the swim up bar

 

[57Chevy]

Why would anyone want to go to a "druglord infested" country.
Condolences to the families of those innocent victims who were possibly murdered or injured
              _____________________________________________________

Mexico to investigate resort explosion as a homicide

VICTORIA — Seven people, including the five Canadians and two Mexicans, were killed last Sunday when an explosion tore through one of the lobbies at the sprawling Grand Riviera Princess Hotel resort of Playa del Carmen.

Eighteen people were injured.

Mexican authorities have now opened a homicide investigation into the explosion.

Quintana Roo state attorney Francisco Alor said this week three Canadian families have filed homicide complaints with Mexican authorities. Two families have filed injury complaints.

The investigation will look at possible causes of the blast, including whether it was the result of negligence.

Homicide investigations are routine in Mexico whenever there are unexplained deaths, Alor said Thursday. The official Canadian complaints put a further obligation on authorities to open a homicide file, he said.

The mother of one of five Canadians killed is vowing to get to the truth of what happened.

"My son went to Mexico in good faith, and if they think my son's ashes will be swept under a carpet — I don't think so," Lynda Huolt said Friday, from Prince George, B.C., where she lives. "Someone has to be accountable."

Huolt's 33-year-old son, Malcolm Johnson of Nanaimo, B.C., had been married in Mexico three days before his death, leaving behind his new bride, Heather Pynten, and their baby daughter Audrey, who turned one the day before he died.

Johnson, a real estate agent, was getting his wife a coffee when the hotel lobby was rocked by the explosion. A friend of Johnson phoned Huolt to inform her of her son's death.

Huolt hasn't filed an official complaint with Mexican authorities yet, she said.

She said Friday she supports any investigation that will determine why the explosion occurred and who is responsible.

"We will get to the bottom of this," Huolt said. "I have a new mission in life now and I want answers for my son, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter.

"It's the last thing I can do for him now that (Malcolm's) gone," Huolt said. "Ten years from now, when my granddaughter visits me and asks what happened, I'm going to be able to tell her."

She said sometimes she thinks she is in a nightmare from which she will wake up.

The other Canadians killed were Christopher Charmont, 41, and his nine-year-old son, John, from Drumheller, Alta.; Darlene Ferguson, a 51-year-old grandmother from Edmonton; and Elgin Barron, 51, from Guelph, Ont.

Ferguson was in Mexico to see her son's wedding to Shantelle Scherger, an esthetician who has worked at Pure Elements salon and spa for seven years.

Salon owner Chad Stewart said Scherger married Ferguson's son, David, on a beach in Mexico just two days before the explosion that killed Ferguson and injured the couple's toddler son.

Stewart, who has spoken with Scherger and her mother since they returned home, said the family believes the one-year-old boy survived only because he was in a stroller at the time of the blast. He underwent surgery to remove glass that was embedded in his head, said Stewart.

"He's gone through a tremendous ordeal, the poor little guy. He has lots of stitches," Stewart said. "He's pretty bruised up too."

Mexican authorities have repeatedly ruled out any sort of attack as the cause of the explosion. Alor said investigators are pursuing the theory that there may have been an accumulation of methane gas due to rotting material in waste water, and that the gas ignited.

Lawyers have advised the Huolts to wait before taking action. However, Huolt said she was told by the Canadian government that a file on Johnson's death is open.

"We're hoping the Canadian government will take action and we're also waiting to see what the rest of the families are doing, but we will definitely follow their lead," she said.

Huolt said she is not looking for revenge.

At no point has anyone from the hotel apologized to her or offered assistance, she said. However, the airline WestJet Airlines Ltd. has bent over backwards to help the family, she said.

The area is popular with Canadians, and there were about 400 WestJet Vacations guests staying at the resort at the time of the blast.

WestJet flew put on a special flight following the tragedy to take passengers home.

Huolt's son will be buried on Monday. After a private burial service, a celebration of Johnson's life will take place at the a Nanaimo theatre. "It's what he would have wanted," Huolt said.

                  (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)

 

[MPwannabe]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/11/19/edmonton-mexico-blast-ferguson-ambulance.html

The ambulance that transported Alberta explosion victim Darlene Ferguson to hospital in Mexico on Sunday ran out of gas along the way, family members told CBC News Friday.

Ferguson, 51, was one of seven people, including five Canadians, who were killed Sunday in the explosion at the Grand Riviera Princess resort in Playa del Carmen.

Ferguson, a mother of three who was in Mexico for her son's wedding, was taken to hospital in Cancun for treatment after the blast, where she died.

When the ambulance ran out of gas, attendants asked Ferguson's daughter Katie to pay for the gas, her brother Barry Hoffman said.

"It's just terrible, actually," he said.

Hoffman said his sister was taken to three different medical facilities.

"All in all, it took three hours before she got actual treatment," Hoffman said. "Three hours is just an unreasonable amount of time."

Katie Ferguson, who is a registered nurse, noticed that the ambulance attendants had placed the respirator on her mother incorrectly.

Mexican authorities announced Thursday that they have opened a homicide investigation into the explosion.



Apparently it only takes one news article for me to instantly become disgusted with a country.

 

[PMedMoe]

Why would anyone want to go to a "druglord infested" country.

Okay, this might be a bit rude, but tact was never my strong point.

What the hell does a gas leak/explosion have to do with a country being "druglord infested"?

Consider this:  In July, a fire breaks out in a hotel in Ottawa filled with tourists from country X.  Someone from country X says "Why would anyone want to go to a country where it snows half the year?"

One thing has nothing to do with the other.

Perhaps people should wait for results as to the cause of the explosion before jumping to conclusions.

 

[57Chevy]

PMed
        OK....I might have been a little bit in the deep end on that one, but everytime I see something
in the NEWS with regards to Mexico there is someone or another getting blown away by those Cartels.
They have gained so much control of that country that it has become an unsafe vacation spot. The Police
have become a target and they have to call in the army to try to control the bloodshed. It has gotten way
out of hand. It has been recommended that Canadians stay away from there. And I agree 110%.
        I admit that it is truly a beautiful place to visit in the virtual world but my footprint will never be found
there. And I don't care how cheap it can be to vacation there.

 

[Oh No a Canadian]

A comma should be placed between 'killed' and 'others' in the title, it is a little misleading when one is first reading it.

 

[mariomike]

        OK....I might have been a little bit in the deep end on that one, but everytime I see something
in the NEWS with regards to Mexico there is someone or another getting blown away by those Cartels.

1994
"Car Bomb at Mexico Hotel Kills 5; Drug Link Suspected: GUADALAJARA, Mexico — A car packed with powerful explosives blew up outside a luxury hotel Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding 15. Police sources said the bombing may be linked to Guadalajara's drug gangs.":
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-06-12/news/mn-3431_1_drug-link-suspected