Reverberations of the explosion at a Mexican resort on Nov. 15, which killed at least five people, continue to have an effect on many area residents who were among the many Canadians staying at the facility at the time.
One of them, Ann Pfeil, who was about to check out with husband Clare Miller from the Grand Riviera Princess Hotel on the morning of the explosion, said it was a devastating scene.
“We would have been there normally, every morning, except that morning because we were checking out,” said Pfeil with reference to the restaurant area where the explosion occurred.
“We were in our room and we did not hear any blast, but it was a huge rush of air one way and another rush to the other way,” she said.
She said they were made aware of the proportions of the incident when they were approached by someone telling them everyone was searching for doctors and nurses.
“We were at the scene about ten minutes after and there were many people and people were doing CPR on people lying on the ground.”
“Then we just got out of the way to let people do what they needed to do,” she said.
She added that the resort was full of Canadians.
“We saw may be only two American couples, and every single day we sat down and talked to people from Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Botha, Big Valley.”
Pfeil said she did not agree with some of the accounts of the events published in media outlets.
“I read some people saying many people working there did not speak English, that is so not-true,” Pfeil said.
“They were professional but I would say that they were not prepared for such an incident.”
“Emergency personnel were there 20 minutes after the incident, but not enough of them.”
She said such an incident would not discourage her family to go to the same area for vacation again but that she would probably not go to the same hotel because it would be difficult to forget the scenes she witnessed there.