[EN IMAGES] Cuba calls for help, faced with the gigantic fire of an oil depot

Cuba on Saturday asked for help from “friendly countries” to deal with the gigantic fire at an oil depot struck by lightning, in which 77 people were injured, three of whom are in critical condition, and 17 firefighters are missing. .

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Some 800 people were evacuated from the disaster area in the suburbs of the city of Mantanzas, with more than 140,000 inhabitants and located 100 kilometers east of Havana, from where the huge plume of black smoke obscuring the sky.

Cuba asks for international help: Matanzas continues to burn, 17 missing firefighters

Cuba needs already requested international aid. The fire in the heavy fuel tanks is uncontrollable. Civil protection agencies, firefighters and volunteers have done their best. pic.twitter.com/iLOg8lrJR6

– Panama Newspaper (@DiarioPanama) August 6, 2022

“Cuba has asked for help and advice from friendly countries with experience in the oil sector,” the presidency said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that “Cuba’s foreign policy is activated to receive help from friendly countries.”

The U.S. Embassy in Havana claimed to be “in touch” with Cuban officials and clarified that “U.S. law allows U.S. entities and organizations to provide disaster relief and response in Cuba.” The United States imposes a sanctions regime on the single ruling party on the communist island.

On Twitter, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that controlling the fire “might take time”.

Three injured are in critical condition, three are in very serious condition and 12 people are seriously injured, according to the official newspaper Granma. The 17 missing are “firefighters who were in the area closest to the fire” when an explosion took place.

Helicopters were hard at work battling the blaze on Saturday, with water hoses brought in using cranes.

“The sky was yellow”

The fire broke out late Friday night when lightning struck one of the tanks at the oil depot. In the early morning, the fire then spread to a second tank.

According Granma“there was a failure of the lightning conductor system, which might not withstand the power of the electric discharge”.

Ginelva Hernandez, 33, said she, her husband and three children were sleeping when they were awakened by a violent explosion. “We threw ourselves out of bed. When we went out into the street, the sky was yellow,” she told AFP. At that time, “people’s fear was out of control.”

Laura Martinez, a resident near the disaster area, told AFP that she “felt the explosion, like a shock wave”.

In #Massacres There is no talk of anything else. They all have their eyes on the nearby tanks and pray to God that the fire does not spread. “This country is cursed because it does not turn to God. How many plagues will it take for Pharaoh to lose his head,” a neighbor tells me. pic.twitter.com/rDwftfCkcG

— Mario J. Penton (@MarioJPenton) August 6, 2022

Hearing a first explosion, Yuney Hernandez, 32, and her children fled their home located two kilometers from the depot. They returned a few hours later and then heard more explosions in the early hours of the morning and sounds “like pieces of the tank falling.”

According to Asbel Leal, Director of Commerce and Supply of the Cuban Petroleum Union [Cupet], the first tank “contained approximately 26,000 cubic meters of domestic crude, or approximately 50% of its maximum capacity” at the time of the disaster. The second tank contained 52,000 cubic meters of fuel oil.

According to him, Cuba had never been confronted with a fire of “the magnitude of today”.

The deposit supplies the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the largest in Cuba, but the pumping to the plant has not stopped, clarified Granma.

This fire comes as the island has been facing supply difficulties since May to meet the increased demand for electricity due to the summer heat.

#Massacres | There is already a fourth tank in the middle of the flames… The situation is really serious and alarming. I hope that the inept gang of the Central Committee put their arrogance aside and ask for help from friends and enemies alike and as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/zkyn62hYMt

— Mario J. Penton (@MarioJPenton) August 6, 2022

The authorities must carry out rotating cuts of up to 12 hours a day in certain regions of the country, triggering the anger of exasperated residents, who organized around twenty demonstrations.

The obsolescence of the island’s eight thermoelectric power stations, maintenance work and the lack of fuel are hampering electricity production.

Cuba currently has an average electricity distribution capacity of 2,500 megawatts, which is insufficient for peak-hour household demand, which reaches 2,900 megawatts, according to authorities.