A fire caused by lightning at an oil storage facility is raging out of control in the Cuban city of Matanzas, with 17 firefighters missing and at least 100 people injured after four explosions.
Key points:
- Authorities say 121 people were injured in the fire, which has been burning since Friday
- At least 17 firefighters were reported missing and an unidentified body was found
- About 800 people have been evacuated from the neighborhood of Dubrocq, about 100 km east of the capital, Havana.
Cuban authorities said 121 people had been injured in the fire and that an unidentified body had been found late Saturday.
Firefighters and other specialists were still trying to put out the fire at the Matanzas supertanker base, where the fire started during a thunderstorm on Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted.
Authorities said about 800 people were evacuated from the Dubrocq neighborhood closest to the fire.
The government said it had sought help from international experts from “friendly countries” with experience in the oil sector.
Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío said the US government had offered technical assistance to put out the fire.
On his Twitter account, he said that the “proposal is in the hands of specialists for proper coordination”.
Minutes later, President Miguel Díaz-Canel thanked Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile for their offers of aid. A support flight from Mexico arrived Saturday night.
Cuba’s Official News Agency said lightning struck one tank, starting a fire, and the fire later spread to a second tank.
As military helicopters flew overhead, dropping water on the blaze, a thick plume of black smoke billowed from the facility and spread westward more than 100 kilometers toward Havana.
Firefighters have been working since Friday night to control the fire. (AP: Ramon Espinosa)
Firefighters are working to contain the fire
Roberto de la Torre, head of fire operations in Matanzas, said firefighters were spraying water on intact tanks in an attempt to keep them cool in hopes of preventing the fire from spreading.
The Cuban Ministry of Health reported that 121 people were injured and five of them were in critical condition. The Presidency of the Republic said that the 17 missing people were “firefighters who were in the nearest area trying to prevent the spread”.
Later on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement that a body had been found and that officials were trying to identify the person.
The crash comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. There was no immediate word on how much oil had burned or was in danger at the storage facility, which has eight giant tanks that hold oil used to power power plants.
The plume of smoke can be seen stretching west towards Havana. (AP: Ramon Espinosa)
“I was in the gym when I heard the first explosion. A column of smoke and a terrible fire rose into the sky,” resident Adiel Gonzalez told the Associated Press.
“The city smells strongly of sulphur.”
He said some people also decided to leave the Versailles neighborhood, which is a little further from the tank farm than Dubrocq.
Many ambulances, police and firefighters were seen on the streets of Matanzas, a city of about 140,000 people that sits on Matanzas Bay.
Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of the area with a thick column of black smoke moving from the point of the fire west towards the capital, Havana.
“This plume can be up to 150 kilometers long,” Pila wrote on his Twitter account.
AP