11 Dead and 59 Injured in Tragic Explosion in San Cristóbal
The Emergency Operations Center has released an update on the devastating incident that occurred in San Cristóbal, located 24 km from Santo Domingo. The current balance reveals that 11 individuals have lost their lives, with 59 others sustaining injuries.
Juan Manuel Méndez, the director of the Emergency Operations Center, disclosed that while 11 bodies have been identified, there are believed to be more casualties. Méndez emphasized the need to determine whether the discovered remains belong to a single individual or if there are multiple bodies involved. It appears that the explosion, which took place around 3:10 p.m. local time, has affected nine buildings, causing significant damage to four others.
Efforts are currently underway to extinguish the fires from four active sources and to identify any additional victims, according to Méndez. The disaster zone has been inundated with concerned individuals, many of whom are searching for their missing loved ones.
President Luis Abinader, who visited the site of the tragedy early on, expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. As of Tuesday morning, 37 of the injured individuals remained hospitalized out of the total 59 reported earlier.
The explosion has resulted in a massive fire and a towering column of smoke. Authorities have yet to determine the exact cause of the detonation, which has affected several businesses, including a hardware store, a veterinary clinic, a plastics factory, and a Public Ministry building. President Abinader confirmed that an investigation is ongoing to determine the origin and causes of the accident, stressing the importance of saving lives without any limitations on resources.
The catastrophic incident also led to the destruction of numerous vehicles, which had to be relocated using heavy machinery.
In hospitals near the disaster area, anxious individuals flooded the premises, carrying photos of their missing relatives. They hoped to find information about their loved ones and if they had been admitted for treatment. On social media platforms, viral images containing the faces of missing individuals along with contact numbers were shared in an effort to locate them.
One concerned citizen, Daysi Rodríguez, spoke to reporters at the Ney Arias hospital in San Cristóbal, expressing her desperation, “We want to know what happened to our relative. She was presumed to be here, but she’s not listed.”
Approximately 500 members of the security forces, civil defense, and the fire department have been mobilized in the affected area, as stated by Joel Santos, the Minister of the Presidency. Canine units are being employed to search for survivors beneath the debris of the destroyed buildings.
A witness interviewed by the Listín Diario newspaper described the terrifying experience, stating, “The windows of the house moved very strongly, and I thought it had been an earthquake. I thought they were going to break.”
San Cristóbal, the fourth most populous province in the country, boasts a population of 688,828 out of the 10.7 million inhabitants of the Caribbean nation.