CBS News
Texas woman jumped in hot tub to try to rescue husband who died by electrocution at Mexico resort, lawsuit says
An American tourist was killed and after being electrocuted in a hot tub in a Mexican beach town earlier this week, an incident that prompted the family to sue the resort for wrongful death and negligence, their lawyers said. The man’s wife tried to rescue her drowning husband after he was zapped by the current but she was electrocuted herself and hospitalized with serious injuries, according to the lawsuit.
The injured woman, 35-year-old Lizette Zambrano, filed the lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages from the U.S.-based resort operators from her hometown of El Paso, Texas, on Friday, days after being medevaced from the hot tub at the resort town of Puerto Peñasco, an hour south of the border.
The Arizona-based defendants, vacation rental provider Casago International and travel company High Desert Travel, did not respond to a request for comment on the suit, which holds them responsible for faulty electric wiring in the hot tub that caused the couple’s electrocution and 43-year-old Jorge Guillen’s death.
GoFundMe
On top of failing to prevent and warn guests about the hazards of the hot tub, the resort managers also failed to react quickly enough to the emergency, the claim said.
The tragedy unfolded when Zambrano, her husband Guillen and several other family members arrived at the Sonoran Sea Resort, a complex of high-rise condos, on Tuesday for their vacation, the lawsuit said. Zambrano and Guillen headed to the hot tub to watch the sun set over the sea.
They didn’t know an electric current was rippling through the hot tub water.
“It’s absolutely terrifying,” Tej Paranjpe, attorney at the Houston-based firm PMR law, told The Associated Press.
The moment that Guillen dipped his foot inside the hot tub, the current zapped him. He tumbled into a direct electric circuit and quickly became trapped underwater.
Zambrano jumped in to rescue her drowning husband, then was jolted by the current and sucked in, too, according to the lawsuit. Cellphone footage from the incident shows the beachfront pool deck descending into chaos as shrieking guests raced over, tried to help the couple, then discovered the danger of the hot tub water. The video appears to show someone trying to perform chest compressions on a person lying on the ground.
While a guest managed to drag Zambrano out of the water, efforts to retrieve Guillen with poles and various metal tools only unleashed electric shocks on more and more people, the lawsuit said.
“There was not a single staff member that did anything while Jorge was getting continuously shocked again and again underwater,” Paranjpe said.
Ten minutes passed, Zambrano’s lawyers said, until workers at the resort responded to vacationers’ cries for help. The manager eventually succeeded in retrieving Guillen from the bottom of the hot tub, but it was too late.
Zambrano was flown by helicopter to Phoenix, Arizona, and was discharged from the hospital on Friday.
Mexican prosecutors in Sonora state reported that investigators were looking into “the origin of the electrical failure” and would conduct field visits in the coming days.
“A heart of gold”
Jim Ringquist, sales director for Sonoran Resorts Inc., said in a statement last week, “We are all terribly devastated by the tragedy that occurred at the Sonoran Sea Resort recently.”
He also said the company’s CEO, Fernando Anaya, died unexpectedly Wednesday of a heart attack, “adding another unfortunate tragedy to the already sad situation.”
A GoFundMe launched for the couple had raised over $55,000 as of June 19.
“Jorge had a heart of gold and was always there for family and friends,” the GoFundMe says. “The love they shared was one for ages.”
Hot tub electrocution due to faulty underwater lighting and flawed pumps remains rare, but experts warn that vigilance is needed to ensure equipment is properly maintained.
Between 2002 and 2018, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission reported 47 incidents involving injury or death in hot tubs, pools and spas in the country.
Last June, a man died after an apparent electrocution while repairing a hot tub inside a fitness center in Phoenix.
CBS News
Head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces killed in Moscow blast triggered by device hidden in scooter, officials say
Moscow — The head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, Lt. General Igor Kirillov, was killed along with his deputy early Tuesday in an explosion in Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
An explosive device hidden in an electronic scooter went off outside a residential building as the two men left the structure, Agence France-Presse cites investigators as saying.
ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images
“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. “Investigative and search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances around this crime.”
ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images
The committee carries out responsible major investigations in Russia.
Kirillov was sentenced in absentia by a Ukrainian court on Dec. 16 for the use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine during Russia’s military operation in Ukraine that started in Feb. 2022.
AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images
Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, said it had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield since February 2022, particularly K-1 combat grenades.
During the almost 3-year operation, Russia has made small but steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls.
Kirillov had been in his post since 2017, AFP notes.
A powerful earthquake hit the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital, Port Vila, including one housing the embassies of the U.S. and other nations. A witness told Agence France-Presse of bodies seen in the city.
Dan McGarry, a journalist with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project based in Vanuatu, told the Reuters news agency in an interview that police said at least one person had been killed and injured people had been taken to hospital.
“It was the most violent earthquake I’ve experienced in my 21 years living in Vanuatu and in the Pacific Islands. I’ve seen a lot of large earthquakes, never one like this,” he said.
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 35 miles, off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu’s main island, at 12:47 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The ground floor of a building housing the U.S, French and other embassies had been crushed under higher floors, resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.
“That no longer exists. It is just completely flat. The top three floors are still holding but they have dropped,” Thompson said.
“If there was anyone in there at the time, then they’re gone.”
Thompson said the ground floor housed the U.S. embassy, but that couldn’t be immediately confirmed.
A photo showed significant damage to the building:
STR / AFP via Getty Images
The United States has closed the embassy until further notice, citing “considerable damage” to the mission, the U.S. embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a message on social media. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this earthquake,” the embassy said.
The New Zealand High Commission, housed in the same building, suffered “significant damage,” a statement from Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ office said, adding that, “New Zealand is deeply concerned about the significant earthquake in Vanuatu, and the damage it has caused.”
Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure business in Vanuatu, said, “There’s people in the buildings in town. There were bodies there when we walked past.”
A landslide on one road had covered a bus, he said, “so there’s obviously some deaths there.”
The quake also collapsed at least two bridges, and most mobile networks were cut off, Thompson said.
“They’re just cracking on with a rescue operation. The support we need from overseas is medical evacuation and skilled rescue, (the) kind(s) of people that can operate in earthquakes,” he said.
STR / AFP via Getty Images
Video footage posted by Thompson and verified by AFP showed uniformed rescuers and emergency vehicles working on a building where an external roof had collapsed onto a number of parked cars and trucks.
The streets of the city were strewn with broken glass and other debris from damaged buildings, the footage showed.
Nibhay Nand, a Sydney-based pharmacist with businesses across the South Pacific, said he had spoken to staff in Port Vila who said most of the store there had been “destroyed” and that other buildings nearby had “collapsed.”
“We are waiting for everyone to get online to know how devastating and traumatic this will be,” Nand told AFP.
A tsunami warning was issued after the quake, with waves of up to three feet forecast for some areas of Vanuatu, but it was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.
Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, flooding and tsunamis, according to the annual World Risk Report.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Woman, 4 children deported for missing immigration hearing in Houston
Head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces killed in Moscow blast triggered by device hidden in scooter, officials say
Earthquake rocks Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, deaths feared, U.S. embassy damaged
Woman, 4 children deported for missing immigration hearing in Houston
Head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces killed in Moscow blast triggered by device hidden in scooter, officials say