Nearly 80 hurt, 17 missing as fire set off by lightning spreads at Cuban oil storage facility
Nearly 80 people are hurt and 17 are missing in the Cuban city of Matanzas after a lightning strike sparked a major fire at a crude oil storage facility.
The still-uncontrolled blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, in Matanzas Province, about 60 miles east of Havana, began after a tank was hit by lightning during a thunderstorm Friday night, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
That tank was estimated to hold over 13 million gallons of fuel oil.
A helicopter dumps water over the Matanzas Supertanker Base, as firefighters try to quell a blaze which began during a thunderstorm the night before, in Matazanas, Cuba, on Saturday. (Ramon Espinosa/)
The blaze later spread to a second tank, which exploded around 5 a.m. Saturday.
Nearly 800 people were evacuated, authorities said.
Cuba’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said on Twitter early Saturday morning that a local hospital had received 49 patients, seven of whom were in critical condition.
El incendio fue en un tanque similar a estos, que se propagó al colapsar para el segundo tanque.
Hasta este momento sólo se han incendiado
2 tanques en la Base de Supertanqueros de #Matanzas #FuerzaCuba 🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/sKwv4Rl5c8— Ministerio de Energía y Minas de Cuba (@EnergiaMinasCub) August 6, 2022
A few hours later, the official Matanzas Facebook page said that the number of injured had increased to 77 people.
The Cuban energy minister, Liván Arronte Cruz, is among those injured, the office of the president said on Twitter.
Seventeen firefighters were reported missing Saturday morning just as the second tank exploded.
Images of the fire shared on social media by Cuban authorities show a massive column of black smoke rising from the facility.
People watch a huge rising plume of smoke caused by a blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, in Matazanas, Cuba, on Saturday. (Ramon Espinosa/)
President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the scene and held a meeting with the provincial authorities.
“It is urgent to find the missing firefighters in the explosion and to care for their families,” he tweeted Saturday morning. “The situation is difficult but we will prevail.
Later in the afternoon, he sent out another tweet expressing “deep gratitude to the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile” for promptly offering to help.
“We also appreciate the offer of technical advice from the U.S.,” he added.
