Mexico prosecutor says evidence suggests gas line caused hotel blast that killed 7
Posted December 14, 2010 10:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CANCUN, Mexico – Prosecutors say new evidence suggests a gas-line leak probably caused the Nov. 14 explosion that killed five Canadians and two Mexicans at a hotel on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
The attorney general of the state where the hotel is located says investigators found an unauthorized extension of a gas line under the hotel lounge where the blast occurred.
Attorney General Francisco Alor says the line had apparently been damaged and leaked prior to the blast.
Officials had earlier said an accumulation of swamp or sewage gas may have fueled the blast.
Alor said Tuesday that those may have contributed, but the heating-gas line appears to be the main culprit and may have been set off by a spark from an electric switch or plug.
Five Canadians from B.C. and Alberta were killed in the explosion, along with two hotel workers, and 18 others, many of them from Ontario, were injured.
