Playa del Carmen, Q. R. — UPDATED: A powerful gas explosion in the room of a Playa del Carmen home caused substantial structural damage and left one man with extensive burns.
The LP gas explosion was reported to authorities around 10:00 p.m. Wednesday by neighbors who heard the explosion erupt from the Villas del Sol home. Emergency personnel arrived at the residence to find a large section of the building had been blown out.
A majority of the face of the building had been removed, opening up two separate spaces. When firemen arrived, the man in the exploding room was still inside. Paramedics began treating him at the scene for the second and third degree burns he received.
Official details on the cause of the explosion were not immediate. Several neighboring houses in the area suffered glass damage. The unidentified man was rushed to the General Hospital with extensive burns. His condition remains unknown.
UPDATE: Francisco Poot, director of Civil Protection has said that it was the owner of the house himself who caused the accident by intentionally exploding a gas tank.
“Yesterday, at approximately 9:52 p.m. we received a 911 report of an explosion in the Villas del Sol neighborhood that a gas tank exploded and there was a damaged home. Homeowner, 37-year-old Anuar Arroniz, was the man injured in the blast.
Poot said that the home was completely destroyed and that five surrounding homes were damaged. He also said that they removed two other 20-liter tanks from the home for safe keeping. “In this case it was not a tank in poor condition that caused the accident, but the inhabitant himself, who previously threatened his neighbors with exploding the cylinder,” he said.
