(CNN Spanish) — Police and firefighters continue to search for survivors in the rubble following an explosion Friday morning destroyed the Hotel Saratoga in HavanaCuba, killing at least 31 people, confirmed the Cuban Ministry of Health this Sunday.
Here are the keys you should know regarding the tragedy:
The possible cause of the explosion
A gas leak is believed to have caused the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel, according to Cuba’s Presidential Office, which said more details would be forthcoming. “Everything indicates that the explosion was caused by an accident,” said the Cuban Presidential Office in a tweet.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the site of the explosion and the Hermanos Ameijeras hospital, where several victims were sent, according to images shared by the Presidential Office on Twitter.
Diaz-Canel said on Friday that the explosion “was not a bomb or an attack, it was an unfortunate accident,” following returning to the site of the explosion.
The report of the victims
The death toll following Friday’s explosion rises to 31, while 19 people remain hospitalized following the explosion, the Cuban Ministry of Health said Sunday.
On Saturday, Cuban state media reported that there were 32 dead, and the Cuban presidency said there were 26. It is not clear what accounts for this discrepancy.
#HotelSaratoga
Data: 8/May 6:30 pm???? Adults in hospital: 19
???? Children in hospital: 5
????????Deceased adults: 27
???????? Deceased children: 4
???? Medically discharged patients: 30#ForceCuba pic.twitter.com/d9Z2qMW56m
— Cuba Presidency ???????? (@PresidenciaCuba) May 9, 2022
Cuban state media reported early Saturday that rescue teams identified 22and four of them minors.
The first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in Havana, Luis Torres Iríbar, said that the search process in the place is slow because “it is regarding looking for corpses and survivors,” according to the official website of Cuba Granma.
Torres said all agencies are participating in these efforts. “We have the maps of the hotel, and the technology that the country has is focused on the search.”
“We are exploring the interior part of the hotel where there are supposed to be deceased people,” Torres explained, adding that rescue teams have not been able to reach all areas inside the hotel.
Credit: ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images
Among the victims are two Spanish tourists. A tourist died and another was seriously injured following the explosion, as announced this Saturday by the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez.
“Tragic news reaches us from Cuba. A Spanish tourist has died and another Spanish citizen is seriously injured following the explosion of the Saratoga hotel,” Sanchez tweeted.
“All our love for their families and those of all the victims and injured. Our support for the Cuban people,” added Sánchez.
On Saturday, authorities said a Cuban-American woman was among the injured, according to Dalila Alba González, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Tourism.
The eyewitness account
Cuban police and firefighters search the rubble for survivors of the explosion in downtown Havana.
Witnesses near the hotel described a “huge explosion” that apparently destroyed buses and cars outside the Saratoga Hotel, located in the center of the city.
Images from the scene showed the building’s at least three-story blown-up facade adorned with green and white stucco. Columns of dust and smoke might be seen rising around the rubble on the ground.
A CNN crew on the ground saw a bloodied woman being carried from the blast site. Firefighters were using their bare hands to move broken pieces of granite and stone to pull people out of the rubble. Pieces of metal awnings, balconies and large chunks of stone were scattered regarding 90 meters away from the hotel.
The significance of the hotel
The Hotel Saratoga in Havana has a long history. The building, located steps from the Capitol, was built at the end of the 19th century and, by the 1930s, it was one of the outstanding hotels in the city.
The building where the Hotel Saratoga is located, according to the historian Carlos Venegas, had been designed to house warehouses, homes and guest houses. It was ordered to be built by the Spanish merchant Gregorio Palacios around 1879-1880, according to the hotel review.
“Gregorio Palacios, a native of Santander, was one of the richest urban owners in Havana and one of the largest contributors to the treasury,” the historian explains, citing a review of the hotel. In 1879 he signed the contract for the construction of the three-storey building.
“The ground floor was a tobacco warehouse, a store and entrance halls to the four houses that occupied the main floor or second floor. The third was used as a hotel or guest house, with 43 rooms and a dining room,” he explained.
The Saratoga Hotel, which was previously located on Monte Street, was moved to this building on Prado Street around 1933.
Before it was destroyed in Friday’s explosion, the hotel’s façade retained some of its original features. Elements of the building such as bars, wooden lattices, marble stairs and columns showed how it was originally, despite the great changes that were inside the doors.
