Cuba: second oil tank collapses during serious fire in Matanzas

The second oil tanker went down at midnight on Sunday in killingsin western Cuba, where firefighters have been battling a gigantic blaze for two days that has left one dead and 16 missing, local authorities said.

“Tank No. 2 has just collapsed, it is not yet specified whether the lid of tank No. 3 was thrown off during the explosion,” the regional department of People’s Power said on their Facebook page on the base of fuel trucks. killingscity ​​105 km from Havana.

The large-scale incident began on Friday at 19:00 local time, when lightning struck a tank, which is part of a fuel storage plant, which contained a total of eight huge tanks.

The first tank contained 26,000 cubic meters of crude oil, about 50% of its maximum capacity. Early Saturday morning, this large concave-topped cylinder collapsed and the fire spread to a second tank containing 52,000 cubic meters of fuel oil. The last one collapsed at midnight on Sunday.

Chairmanship Cuba confirmed that it was “an oil spill from the second tank” and that the third did not collapse. The two damaged tanks were together, and authorities have feared since Saturday that the fire will spread to a third tank. Given this risk, “the forces that were working at the site were evacuated” on Sunday evening, the Matanzas provincial government said.

According to the latest medical report released before the collapse, one person died, 24 people remain in hospitals, five of them in critical condition.

The 16 people missing are “firefighters who were in the area closest” to the fire, the president said on Saturday.

The body of 60-year-old firefighter Juan Carlos Santana, discovered on Saturday, was buried with honors this Sunday in his hometown of Rodas in the neighboring province of Cienfuegos.

Relatives of the missing met with the president Miguel Diaz-Canel in a hotel in the center killingswhere they are helped by doctors and psychologists in their agonizing expectation.

“My son has done his duty, he has taken a step forward,” the mother of a 19-year-old firefighter, who was at the supertanker base early Saturday morning, told AFP tearfully when the second tank caught fire. .

“All Support”

Mothers, fathers and other relatives await news of their loved ones in the lobby of the Velasco Hotel.

“All support is for you and we are here for whatever you need,” the president told them, according to images broadcast on state television.

The tragedy occurred three months after the explosion in Havana the Saratoga Hotel due to a gas leak that killed 46 people, including a Spanish tourist, and injured more than 50, as well as the almost complete destruction of the central building.

Rosmary Pino, a 22-year-old Red Cross volunteer who spent the night from Friday to Saturday at the base, said that “two people were injured in the first explosion, but serious burns were at 05:00 in the morning.”

“Those of us downstairs (at the base) saw the sky light up and immediately left,” adds a young veterinary student, still dressed in her red jumpsuit.

Help “decisive”

Authorities were coordinating Sunday with brigade officials from Mexico and Venezuela who arrived on Saturday evening to help put out the fire.

Four Mexican planes and one Venezuelan plane landed at the airport in the famous resort of Varadero, about 40 kilometers northeast of Matanzas. The first Mexican Air Force plane arrived with 60 soldiers and 16 technicians from Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), followed by another with fire control equipment and chemicals.

Early in the morning, another flight arrived from Venezuela with 35 firefighters, specialists and technicians from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), who carried 20 tons of foam and other chemicals.

“Help is important, I think it will be decisive,” he said. Diaz Canel to the press.

The huge plume of smoke that had engulfed Havana since Friday began to subside on Sunday afternoon, before the second reservoir collapsed.

A group of volunteers from the local Red Cross was waiting at the first-aid post, located about 150 meters from the base of the supertankers, and fire engines were constantly leaving for the fire area.