Teachers and business owner who died of carbon monoxide poisoning at Mexico City Airbnb brought light to those around them, families say
A Mexican hotelier who lost four of his employees from carbon monoxide poisoning at his own home after using an Airbnb property to host his guests, said they could never have predicted the tragedy that happened at the home in the city’s east side, which brought light to those who were around him.
The three-month-long tragedy that killed nine and sickened dozens of other occupants has come to be labeled a “cataclysm” for the city, but it remains unclear why the tragedy happened.
On April 9, 2019, after a family member was forced to use an outside hose to clear the air from the home, two air conditioning units were turned off at the home of Manuel Martinez, who owned the property and operated a travel company called Air Transfers and Tours.
A day before, Martinez hosted a family party for six members, which quickly turned into a night-long party.
At about 9:30 p.m., Martinez said his family started to smell something funny.
They quickly left the home for the kitchen, where it turned out to be carbon monoxide.
“It was like a wall of fire, something surreal,” he said, describing how his family quickly started to panic.
All the occupants of the apartment were forced to run out of the building to the rooftop to use a hand-held carbon monoxide detector, and then to the parking lot to the home’s office to use the hand-held carbon monoxide detector.
After about 20 minutes, Martinez woke up and realized that he had to call the authorities.
He said that after the call, his family started to panic.
“When I woke up from my sleep, (his wife) was telling me: ‘We have to get out of here because there is a lot of carbon monoxide. I don’t know how to make it go away. I don’t know