Cuba: 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 that a body had been discovered late on Saturday. The Matanzas Supertanker Base fire, which started during a thunderstorm on Friday night, is still being battled by firefighters and other experts, according to a tweet from the Ministry of Energy and Mines. The Dubrocq neighbourhood closest to the fire was evacuated, according to the authorities, about 800 people.
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 coordination."
After a short while, President Miguel Diaz-Canel expressed gratitude to Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina, and Chile for their assistance offers. 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. Diffuse column of black smoke billowed from the facility and spread westward more than 100 kilometres toward Havana as military helicopters flew overhead dousing the fire with water. Firefighters were spraying water on intact tanks to keep them cool 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 people were hurt, with five of them in critical condition. The 17 people missing, according to the Republic's Presidency, were "firefighters who were in the nearby area trying to prevent the spread," The Health Ministry announced 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 shortage at the time of the accident. There was no immediate word 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 plants had burned or was in danger.
I heard the first explosion while I was in the gym. Adiel Gonzalez, a local, told the Associated Press over the phone that "a column of smoke and terrible fire rose through the skies." The city is strongly sulfur-scented. While Dubrocq is closer to the tank farm than Versailles, he claimed that some residents of Versailles also made the decision to leave. Matanzas, a city on Matanzas Bay with about 140,000 residents, was filled with ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks.
Elier Pila, a local meteorologist, displayed satellite images 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 kilometres long.
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