Cuban firefighters have been joined by Mexican and Venezuelan reinforcements on Sunday in battling a blaze on the Matanzas supertanker port and storage facility which threatens to chop off electrical energy provide throughout the island.
On Friday a lightning strike ignited one in all eight tanks, with a capability of 300,000 barrels of petroleum merchandise, on the Matanzas facility, which receives crude oil, diesel and gas oil shipments from worldwide markets.
A second tank caught fireplace on Saturday, injuring greater than 100 folks, together with first responders, based on Reuters. Firefighters tried to chill the tanks with seawater to stop additional explosions, based on the Matanzas authorities.
The hearth on the port comes because the communist-ruled island has been struggling blackouts with energy crops failing from shortages of gas and a scarcity of upkeep.
The explosions despatched towering fireballs skyward and thick smoke billowed from the power. Officers reported 17 firefighters lacking after the preliminary explosion, earlier than hundreds of residents have been evacuated from the area, round 100km east of Havana. The general public well being ministry reported on Sunday that 24 folks have been nonetheless in hospital, with 5 in a crucial situation.
“There isn’t a historical past of a fireplace of such magnitude on the supertanker base,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned on Saturday. “There are nonetheless arduous days of labor forward . . . To the extent that we will put out the hearth, we will begin looking for the lacking.”
Díaz-Canel thanked Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Argentina and Chile for having “supplied solidarity [and] materials help within the face of this advanced state of affairs”. He additionally thanked the US for providing technical assist.
Groups skilled in combating gas fires arrived over the weekend from Mexico and Venezuela. Mexico despatched greater than 80 personnel from its army and state oil firm Pemex, together with three helicopters, whereas Venezuelan oil minister Tareck El Aissami introduced the nation was sending 35 specialists from state oil group PDVSA together with 20 tonnes of firefighting materials.
Gas obtained and saved on the Matanzas supertanker base is used to energy six of Cuba’s eight thermoelectric crops, based on Jorge Piñón, a Cuban vitality professional on the College of Texas at Austin. “That is the cornerstone of Cuba’s oil logistics system,” Piñón mentioned.
The docks on the Matanzas amenities, on the north coast between the capital Havana and the resort of Varadero, haven’t been affected by the inferno, Piñón mentioned. Nonetheless, he added: “When you don’t have a spot to place the oil, what good are the docks?”
Cuba produces an estimated 40,000 barrels of oil each day, however should import one other 80,000 — largely from Venezuela — to fulfill its wants, Piñón mentioned.