A lightning-sparked fire at an oil storage facility in the Cuban city of Matanzas caused four explosions, 121 injuries, and the disappearance of 17 firefighters. Authorities in Cuba reported the discovery of an unidentified body.
The Matanzas Supertanker Base fire, which started during a thunderstorm on Friday night, is still being battled by firefighters and other experts as of Saturday, according to a tweet from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
According to the authorities, roughly 800 residents of the Dubrocq neighborhood nearest to the fire were evacuated.
The government claimed to have sought assistance from foreign experts in “friendly countries” who have knowledge of the oil industry.
The US government reportedly offered technical assistance to put out the fire, according to deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernández de Cosso.
He stated on his Twitter page that “specialists are handling the proposal for the necessary cooperation.”
President Miguel Dáz-Canel expressed gratitude for the offers of assistance to Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina, and Chile a short while afterward. On Saturday evening, a support flight from Mexico touched down.
According to the official Cuban News Agency, a fire was started when lightning struck one tank, and it later spread to a second tank.
A thick column of black smoke rose from the complex and extended more than 100 kilometers toward Havana as military helicopters buzzed overhead dousing the fire with water.
Firefighters were spraying water on intact tanks to keep them cold in an effort to contain the fire, according to Roberto de la Torre, director of fire operations in Matanzas.
According to the Health Ministry of Cuba, 121 persons were hurt, with five of them in serious condition.
The 17 individuals missing, according to the Republic’s Presidency, were “firefighters who were in the nearby region trying to prevent the spread,”
The Health Ministry said in a statement later on Saturday that a body had been discovered and that investigators were attempting to identify it.
Cuba is experiencing a fuel scarcity at the time of the accident. There was no early information on how much of the oil stored in the storage facility’s eight enormous tanks that are used to store the fuel for electricity generating facilities had burnt or was in danger.
“I heard the first explosion when I was in the gym. Adiel Gonzalez, a local, told reporters over the phone that “a column of smoke and horrible fire rose through the air.” “There is a strong sulfur odor in the city.”
While Dubrocq is closer to the tank farm than Versailles, he said that several residents of Versailles also made the decision to evacuate.
Matanzas, a city on Matanzas Bay with around 140,000 residents, was filled with ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks.
Elier Pila, a local meteorologist, displayed satellite photographs of the region, displaying a thick plume of black smoke stretching from the fire’s origin westward and east to Havana.
Pila stated on Twitter that the plume could be close to 150 kilometers long.
