Gran Canaria hotel explosion leaves two people dead and injures over 20 people

Story update 26/11/2011 @ 11:31 – A second person has died following the explosion in this hotel. The second victim is a 22 year old waitress who suffered burns on 90% of her body. Meanwhile initial investigations point towards the cause of the explosion as a defect in one of the gas lines which are part of the hotel installation.

Story update 24/11/2011 @ 15:31 – The 55 year old Norwegian tourist that was injured is yesterday’s blast has died of her injuries at hospital. Meanwhile the gas company that were delivering the gas when the incident occurred have claimed that they are not resposible for the incident.

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There has been an explosion at the Hotel Cordial Playa in Mogan, Gran Canaria.  The incident occurred just after 9AM this morning hen there was a gas delivery for the hotel. There were over 10.000 litres of gas at the hotels premises which spread throughout the hotel. This caused panic throughout the hotel amongst the tourists staying at the hotel, a situation that worsened when there was an explosion and fire. The explosion caused burns to a Norwegian tourist, aged 55, who is in critical condition after being transferred by a medicalised helicopter belonging to the  Canarian Emergency Service (SUC) to the Negrin University Hospital of Gran Canaria. The explosion caused the collapse of the roof to much of the ‘spa’ facility. Red Cross staff is providing psychological assistance to the said hotel workers and tourists staying in it. Once of the hotel employees informed their managers of a ‘strong gas smell’ 15 minutes prior to the explosion.

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The managing director of Cordial Canarias, Nicolas Villalobos, has stated that, between 08.30 and 09.00 hours and during the process of a Disa gas truck which was due to fill the tanks of the establishment, something went wrong and the gas has caused an explosion that injured five employees and a hotel guest. He said “Today we had about 900 guests staying at the hotel and we have seen  exemplary work and performance by our colleagues in a difficult time, and they did an exemplary evacuation. Beyond the direct damage of the explosion, the important thing is we have not had any other mishap.”