Meth Lab Blamed For Blast At San Diego Hotel
SAN DIEGO (CBSLA.com) — Three people were hospitalized on Wednesday after an explosion inside a room at a popular San Diego hotel.
KNX 1070's Tom Reopelle reports the blast occurred while two guests were allegedly cooking methamphetamine inside a room at the Heritage Inn Sea World Hotel.
3 hurt in San Diego hotel blast
At least two to three explosions rocked the hotel at 3333 Channel Way in the Midway District of San Diego shortly before 11:15 a.m., the Associated Press reported.
The hotel's entire third floor was evacuated after several people called 911 reporting an explosion, flames and hotel guests running and screaming, police said. The small fire on the second floor was quickly contained.
The explosion - which blew up the wall to an adjacent room - left three people suffering from burn injuries. One of the victims was in critical condition.
Hotel guest Bianca Koch said a 22-year-old man who was allegedly attempting to extract oil from hashish crawled out from the blast with his skin peeled off and some of his hair missing.
"He said they were cooking meth in there and it exploded on them," Koch said. "He was really sorry that he endangered everybody else."
Investigators found several boxes containing canisters of butane inside the room, according to San Diego Police Lt. Joseph Ramos.
Firefighters told Reopelle the explosion was so intense it split two-by-four beams like they were "made of paper."
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