MEXICO CITY – A groom in Mexico for his wedding, as well as a father and his young son, were among five Canadian tourists killed Sunday in a massive gas explosion at a hotel in Mexico.
The blast also sent at least seven other Canadians to hospital with injuries.
The boy, three men and one woman died after the explosion at the Grand Riviera Princess Hotel, a sprawling complex in the beach-lined resort of Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Francisco Alor, the attorney general for Quintana Roo state, identified the victims as father and son Christopher Charmont, 41, and John Charmont, 9 from Drumheller, Alta.; groom Malcolm Johnson, 33, from Nanaimo, B.C.; Darlene Ferguson, 51, from the Edmonton area; and Elgin Aron.
“This brings the death toll to seven people, five Canadians and two Mexicans. The Mexicans who died at the hotel were hotel employees. At the moment there are seven Canadians injured,” he told Postmedia News, adding that two of them were in unstable condition.
“Tentatively we are saying the explosion was caused by decomposition and accumulation of underground gas,” he said. “Under no circumstances are we talking about an attack. It was a gas explosion and we are determining the causes.”
Alor said the resort had no history of problems.
Ferguson, an Edmonton-area grandmother who was in Mexico for her son’s wedding was walking with her two-year-old grandson when the blast went off nearby, said her brother, Barry Hoffman. Ferguson died in hospital.
“We heard she was injured,” Hoffman said. “Then we heard one of her lungs collapsed. Then we heard she passed away on the operating table.”
Family expect her injured grandson to survive, Hoffman said.
Most of Ferguson’s family live in and around Edmonton and many were in Mexico for the wedding. “It’s so terrible,” he said. “So tragic.”
Johnson, a Nanaimo, B.C., realtor, was in Mexico getting married when he was killed. His spouse survived the explosion.
“We’re all in shock,” said Johnson’s boss, Ron Williams, the managing broker at Coast Realty, Sunday night. “His lovely wife has identified his body.”
“I heard he went down to the lobby to retrieve some messages and his wife wasn’t with him when the explosion happened,” said Williams.
The couple’s one year-old daughter was also at the resort for the wedding, he added.
Williams described Johnson as a “great guy”
“He was just the best,” said Williams. “He was loved and respected. He was optimistic with great principles. So it’s just a shock to us all.”
The Charmonts were in Mexico on an eagerly anticipated family vacation. News of the Drumheller family’s tragedy has hit friends hard.
“We’re devastated by what’s happened,” said family friend Jay Garbutt. “Chris was a devoted family man. I know a lot of people say that but he lived it. Nothing was more important for him than being with his family.”
Charmont’s work in the oil and gas industry brought the family to Drumheller.
“He’s someone whose integrity I really recognized and valued. If you were looking for someone to be honest, that’s him.”
John, a Greentree School elementary student, played atom-level hockey on the Drumheller Raptors team.
“John was a fun-loving goofball, a great friend to our son,” said Garbutt. “His loss at his age is just an incomprehensible waste.”
Cancun hospital director Dr. Italo Sampablo told Postmedia News Sunday evening four wounded Canadians were in stable condition at his hospital.
Most of them were taken to hospital for fractured limbs and burns, he said, but added one was expected to undergo “a minor operation” to the spine.
Most of the Canadian patients should be out of the hospital by Tuesday, Sampablo said, while others could stay there as long as five days.
The blast shook the building around 9 a.m., tearing through one of the hotel’s lobbies and bringing down a section of roof.
Peter Travers, a program director with 570 News radio, had been travelling with 60 Canadian tourists from Waterloo, Ont.
He told Postmedia News he was heading to breakfast Sunday morning when he heard “a large crash, as if someone had knocked over a heavy piece of furniture or something.”
He said he heard one of the guests calling out for medical help and helped carry some of the injured using pool deck chairs as stretchers.
“I saw four or five people being attended to, there was glass and debris everywhere.”
“The guests were upset and unsettled,” he said, but added none of the Canadians who were part of his group were hurt.
“Everybody in our group is safe and sound.”
But others weren’t so lucky, he added. He said he saw a family “receive the bad news that somebody they had loved had died, which is just a horrendous moment. Just a very, very sad moment.”
A certain amount of confusion reigned on the scene in the moments following the blast, he said. Guests were later turned away from the immediate area, which remained a hive of activity throughout the day.
Video showing the aftermath of the explosion and shot by Travers, was widely posted online.
Shot from an elevated vantage point, the footage showed a thatched roof at the front of one building partially collapsed and debris scattered around the structure. The injured can also be seen being treated by emergency personnel, with two ambulances parked nearby.
The Mexican government issued a statement through its embassy in Ottawa late Sunday expressing “its solidarity and condolences to the families of victims who lost their lives or were injured in this unfortunate incident.”
The statement said the government had dispatched personnel from the country’s Secretariat of Tourism to the hotel to “bring support to all tourists who require it.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon issued a statement earlier Sunday offering his condolences to the family and friends of those killed.
“Canadian officials in Ottawa and in Mexico continue to monitor the impact of the explosion and remain in close contact with Mexican authorities,” he said. “We are aware that a number of Canadians are staying at the Grand Riviera Princess and of reports of Canadian deaths and injuries.”
In an interview, NDP leader Jack Layton also offered his sympathies.
“We’re horrified at the loss or life,” he said. “We’re hoping the Canadian government is putting the resources necessary to find out what has taken place, is providing support for families and providing all that consular support that is necessary.
“It’s very distressing.” he said.
WestJet Airlines Ltd. said it was working to identify about 400 WestJet Vacations guests staying at the huge resort, which accommodates more than 2,000 people, company spokesman Richard Bartrem said from Calgary.
“It’s a very big resort. There’s three different lobbies.”
WestJet’s emergency-response team has been activated. That team is gathering information for a newly established information hotline and trying to get extra aircraft into Mexico for people who want to leave early, Bartrem said.
“We do have WestJet vacations representatives on the ground at the hotel who are working to find our WestJet guests and update their status. We’re also in contact with the Canadian Consulate in Playa del Carmen,” said Bartrem.
With files from Phil Couvrette, Postmedia News, Vancouver Province, Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald
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