Cuba brings fuel depot blaze under control

Firefighters manage to bring down raging flames and smoke, five days after lightning struck a fuel storage tank, sparking what officials call a "worst fire" in Cuba's history.

Matanzas is Cuba's largest port for receiving crude oil and fuel imports. (Reuters)

Firefighters have finally overcome what officials described as the worst fire in Cuba's history that over five days destroyed 40 percent of the Caribbean island's main fuel storage facility and caused massive blackouts.

Reuters news agency witnesses reported the raging flames that ravaged a four-tank segment of the Matanzas supertanker port had died down late in Tuesday and the towering plumes of thick black smoke streaming from the area were diminished and now mostly gray.

Matanzas is Cuba's largest port for receiving crude oil and fuel imports. Cuban heavy crude, as well as fuel oil and diesel stored in Matanzas in 10 huge tanks, are mainly used to generate electricity on the island.

Lightning struck one fuel storage tank on Friday evening. The fire spread and engulfed the four-tank area on Monday, accompanied by huge explosions and despite efforts by local firefighters supported by more than 100 Mexican and Venezuelan reinforcements.

Firefighter Rafael Perez Garriga told Reuters on the steaming outskirts of the disaster that he worries the fire would impact the power situation in the country.

"The situation is going to be more difficult. If the thermoelectric plants are supplied with that oil, we are going to have the whole world affected, it is electricity and it affects everything," he said.

Cuba, under heavy US sanctions, is all but bankrupt. Frequent blackouts and shortages of gasoline and other commodities already had created a tense situation with scattered local protests following last summer's historic unrest in July.

On Tuesday, more helicopters joined the effort to put out the fire, along with two fireboats sent by Mexico along with heavy firefighting equipment.

"We have not yet been able to access the impact area due to the conditions. There is combustion and so we cannot risk our lives for now," Perez said around noon.

READ MORE: Cuba seeks help as fire rages at fuel storage port

Fears of acid rain

Later in the day firefighters for the first time were entering the area and spraying foam and water on the still smoldering remains.

"Today we have managed to control the fire," Rolando Vecino, head of transport for the Ministry of the Interior, said on state-run television from the scene.

Officials have not said how much fuel has been lost in the fire which destroyed all four tanks. 

Authorities stated that no oil had contaminated the nearby Matanzas Bay. Still, they warned residents as far away as Havana to wear face masks and avoid acid rain due to the massive plume of smoke the fire generated.

One firefighter died and 14 went missing on Saturday when the second tank blew up, authorities said on Tuesday, correcting an earlier figure of 16 missing. Five others remain in critical condition.

Mario Sabines, governor of the Matanzas province, about 130 km from Havana, quipped the flames spread like an "Olympic torch" from one tank to the next, turning each into a "caldron.

READ MORE: Firefighters missing, dozens hurt as fire rages in Cuban oil tank farm

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/cuba-brings-fuel-depot-blaze-under-control/?feed_id=8802&_unique_id=62f2dd5edf47d

Cuba seeks help as fire rages at fuel storage port

Massive oil-fed fire burns near supertanker port in Matanzas as Mexico and Venezuela send teams to help fight the inferno and Cuba accepts US offer of unspecified "technical advice".

Disaster comes at a time when the island has faced mounting difficulties in meeting increased energy demands amid severe summer heat. (AFP)

Cuba has asked for help to contain a massive fire at a fuel depot that has left at least one person dead, 121 people injured and 17 firefighters missing.

Some 1,900 people have been evacuated from the affected area, according to officials from the western Matanzas province, where lightning struck a fuel tank late on Friday, triggering an explosion.

By the early hours of Saturday, the fire had spread to a second tank, causing another blast and sending a huge plume of black smoke into the sky.

Provincial health official Luis Armando Wong told a press conference on Saturday evening a first body had been recovered at the site.

Five people were critically injured, according to an update by the Cuban presidency on Twitter, with three others in a very serious condition in hospital.

The wounded included Energy Minister Livan Arronte.

The president's office said 17 firefighters were missing, those "who were closest" to the fire in an industrial zone of Matanzas, a city some 100 kilometers east of Havana.

"Cuba requested help and advice from friendly countries with experience in fuel" to help put out the fire, the presidency added in a statement.

Later in the day, President Miguel Diaz-Canel expressed thanks to the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile, "which have promptly offered material aid."

"We also appreciate the offer of technical advice from the US," he added.

The US embassy in Havana said on Twitter: "We want to make clear that law authorises US entities and organisations to provide disaster relief and response in Cuba."

The United States has had sanctions against the one-party Communist state for six decades.

Dousing blaze 'could take time'

The fire broke out after a bolt of lightning struck a tank on Friday at the depot on the outskirts of Matanzas, a city of 140,000 people.

Helicopters were hard at work fighting the blaze on Saturday, with ambulances, water tanks and cranes at the scene.

Exhausted firefighters were gathered at the plant, waiting to enter to look for their comrades who seemingly could not escape the second explosion.

"We felt the blast, like a shock wave that pushed you back," Laura Martinez, a resident of La Ganadera, near the disaster zone, told the AFP news agency.

Diaz-Canel said extinguishing the blaze "could take time," while Asbel Leal, director of the Cupet state oil company, said the country had never experienced a fire "of the magnitude we have today."

According to Cupet, the first tank contained about 26,000 cubic metres of crude, about half its capacity, when it was struck by lightning.

The second contained 52,000 cubic metres of fuel oil.

The disaster comes at a time when the island –– with an outdated energy network and persistent fuel shortages –– has faced mounting difficulties in meeting increased energy demands amid severe summer heat.

Source: AFP

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/cuba-seeks-help-as-fire-rages-at-fuel-storage-port/?feed_id=7626&_unique_id=62ef2ccb3626f

17 missing, dozens hurt as fire rages in Cuban oil tank farm

HAVANA -- A fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility raged uncontrolled Saturday in the city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured nearly 80 people and left 17 firefighters missing, Cuban authorities said.

Firefighters and other specialists were still trying to quell the blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, where the fire began during a thunderstorm Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted. The governmeht said later that it had asked for help from international experts in “friendly countries” with experience in the oil sector.

The official Cuban News Agency said lightning hit one tank, starting a fire, and the blaze later spread to a second tank. As military helicopters flew overhead dropping water on the blaze, dense column of black smoke billowed from the facility and spread westward more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) toward Havana.

The Facebook page of the provincial government of Matanzas said the number of injured had reached 77, while 17 people were missing. The Presidency of the Republic said the 17 were “firefighters who were in the nearest area trying to prevent the spread.”

The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. There was no immediate word on how much oil had burned or was in danger at the storage facility, which has eight giant tanks that hold oil used to fuel electricity generating plants.

“I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. A column of smoke and terrible fire rose through the skies,” resident Adiel Gonzalez told The Associated Press by phone. “The city has a strong smell of sulfur.”

Authorities said the Dubrocq neighborhood closest to the fire was evacuated, while Gonzalez added that some people decided to leave the Versailles district, which is a little farther from the tank farm.

Many ambulances, police and fire engines were seen in the streets of Matanzas, a city with about 140,000 inhabitants that is on Matnzas Bay.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel traveled to the area of the fire early Saturday, officials said.

Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of the area with a dense plume of black smoke moving from the point of the fire westward and reaching east to Havana.

“That plume can be close to 150 kilometers long,” Pila wrote on his Twitter account.

———

Andrea Rodríguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/17-missing-dozens-hurt-as-fire-rages-in-cuban-oil-tank-farm/?feed_id=7514&_unique_id=62eec2fd9b07d