Operational malfunction may have caused blast

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This article was published 17/11/2010 (5665 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A Mexican resort where Canadians were killed and injured is facing legal action from local authorities and new suggestions that an explosion might have been caused by a malfunction in one of its operations.

The blast at the Grand Riviera Princess in Playa del Carmen on Sunday killed five Canadians and two Mexican workers, injuring many others who were around one of the hotel’s reception areas at the time.

The state prosecutor Francisco Alor Quezada told Mexico’s national news service Tuesday that it was pursuing legal action against hotel management, saying they tried to bar entry to him and other investigators immediately following the explosion.

The army eventually accompanied them on to the grounds.

Alor Quezada and other officials have offered the theory that a collection of natural gases produced from nearby mangroves became trapped under the hotel and was ignited by a cooking device or some other spark.

But a delegation from a federal environmental protection agency disputed that explanation.

Gabriela Lima Laurents told local reporters that the accident was likely linked to problems with the operation or maintenance of the hotel.

“I’m nearly 100 per cent sure that it was due to an operational problem in the hotel’s infrastructure, and not an accumulation of gas in underground caves,” said Lima Laurents.

“If that was the case, not only (the state of) Quintana Roo but the entire (Yucatan) peninsula would be in danger to explode or would have already blown. I believe it has to do with a failing of the hotel, but that will have to be determined through a forensic investigation.”

The Canadian Press spoke to a number of other geological experts who said they had never heard of a swamp-gas explosion of that kind in the area. A few suggested that the wide use of propane and other gases for cooking and heating water in the area might be a more logical explanation.

— The Canadian Press