Cuba at the weekend was continuing to fight a fire at its main oil storage facility. On Sunday, 82 Mexican and 35 Venezuelan personnel experienced in combating fuel fires joined the effort, bringing four planeloads of fire-fighting chemicals. Cuba had taken the unusual step of appealing to the US for help.
A lightning strike on Friday August 5th caused one of eight storage tanks at the Matazanas super tanker port, which is 60 miles east of Havana, to catch fire. However, it was the surprise ignition on Saturday of a second tank that caused the greater human tragedy, leading to 16 firefighters going missing. The second explosion injured more than 100 people, many first responders, and 24 remained hospitalized, five of them in a critical condition. Cuban energy minister Liván Arronte Cruz was said to be among the injured
personnel.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that “we are facing a fire of such magnitude that it is very difficult to control in Cuba, where there are not all the means that are required”.
Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program, said each tank at the facility could store 300,000 barrels.
President Diaz-Canel said that the US had offered technical advice on fighting the fire, and that the offer was appreciated. He thanked the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile for “solidarity and material aid.”
