Explosion at Riviera Maya Hotel Princess

Just what we need--bad news.

Information from Novedades--with videos--at Explota tanque de gas en hotel Princess de la Riviera Maya: 5 muertos y 20 heridos, saldo - Riviera Maya

say that :

1.- there are 5 dead (2 foreigners of which one was a minor)and 20 injured.

2.- A Mexican CNN reporter--Rey Rodriguez--says one of the dead was an Italian tourist and that most damage was done to the kitchen and one restaurant.

3.- The explosion happened around 9:30 a.m. today.

 

WOW!... that's tragic... but it's certainly not isolated to Mexico... I recall hearing about houses and buildings being demolished by exploding tanks in the States on a number of occasions. Of' course I'm sure our buddies at Fauxnews will start calling it terrorism or drug war related as soon as they can even though it's obviously just a freak accident. I've seen the gas tanks at some of these big hotels, and really, they're lucky it didn't bring the whole place down...

 

Sources report that 4 Canadian tourists are among the dead.
CBC News - World - 4 Canadians killed in Mexico hotel blast: official

 

Here in Canada, this will be portrayed in the media as the tragedy that it is. It's an awful accident! But then, when the next Canadian gets killed in Mexico, there will be a comment about how many Canucks have "been killed" in Mexico and these 4 will be added in, of that I'm quite certain: travel to Mexico is a proverbial whipping boy here.

 

From the Governor's Office, Quintana Roo:

Unidad del Vocero - Gobierno del Estado de Quintana Roo

 

I read a few comments at some Canadian news sites reporting "EXPLOSION at Cancun Resort", and they were almost exclusively racist sounding anti-Mexican ignorance... so apparently it's not just a US thing...
(love how its ALWAYS Cancun if something happens within a 1000 miles... and rather than saying "gas explosion at resort" they use the headlines that cause you to think terrorist bombing...)


I'll also amend my first comment, as I was of the impression that it was a gas tank that had exploded but now the thinking is it was a naturally occurring leak that had built up under the lobby for some time and was ignited somehow... which might explain the damage shown in the videos and pictures... still tragic, but a bit more rare than the more common gas storage tank going off... so it's going to be more difficult for the news outlets to scream negligence since it's not something that could be easily noticed or prevented...

 

I was in Merida this weekend for a wedding and there were rumors there of two terrorist bombs in Playa Car resorts.

We didn't find out what really happened until we returned this evening.

 

A friend of mine is staying at the hotel right now. I talked to her this afternoon, she was obviously shaken up. She and her husband were heading towards that building when BOOM. She said two more minutes and they would have been right there. Tragic story, an accident, but of course this is going to be more fodder for the "Mexico sucks" crowd. :S

 

Very tragic, and my heart goes out to all the families who lost someone.

Hubby and I were there Friday evening, standing in that exact lobby with our friends. Happy to report our friends left yesterday morning, and not today....

Furthermore, unfortunately all the Canadian news articles I see do read "Mexican expolosion at a resort near Cancun kills 7"...My phone should be ringing with worried family members thinking it's cartel related....Can't wait