Major fire spreads at Cuban fuel storage facility hit by lightning

By Marc Frank

HAVANA -A second gasoline storage tank close to Cuba’s supertanker port in Matanzas exploded on Saturday morning following a blaze which burned by the night time after lightning hit one other tank on Friday night.

Cuban state-run tv mentioned not less than 67 individuals have been injured within the second blast and 17 firefighters have been unaccounted for. Civilians had already been evacuated from the realm.

Well being minister José Angel Portal Miranda mentioned in a Twitter publish that of these injured, three have been in vital situation, three very grave and one other 12 have been in a “grave” situation.

Seven sufferers have been transferred to hospitals within the capital, Havana.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the scene 80 miles east of Havana round midnight and returned throughout the morning as state-run tv broadcast dwell protection of the unfolding catastrophe.

Diaz-Canel posted on Twitter earlier than the second blast that first responders have been “attempting to avert the unfold of the flames and any spill of gasoline” into the Matanzas bay.

A later tweet from his workplace mentioned Cuba was asking pleasant nations for recommendation to place the hearth out.

By Saturday morning the hearth appeared utterly uncontrolled, threatening different close by gasoline storage tanks as smoke reached Havana.

A paramedic on the scene, who requested to not be recognized, mentioned by phone that chilly water was being poured on close by tanks.

Cuba is affected by every day blackouts and gasoline shortages and the lack of gasoline and storage capability is prone to irritate the scenario.

Jorge Pinon, director of the College of Texas at Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Vitality and Atmosphere Program, mentioned the realm had eight huge tanks every with a capability of 300,000 barrels.

“The realm is a transshipment level for gasoline to numerous thermo-electric vegetation, not simply the one close by, so this may very well be very dangerous information for the facility grid,” he mentioned.