A lightning strike on Friday ignited one of eight storage tanks at the Matanzas supertanker port 60 miles east of Havana. A second tank caught fire Saturday, catching firefighters and others at the scene by surprise. Sixteen people were missing. Susely Morfa Gonzalez, head of the Communist Party in Matanzas, told local reporters “there are no flames right now, just white smoke” coming from the first tank struck by lightning. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register He said a second tank was still burning, sending up a huge plume of black smoke, while a third, which on Saturday night officials feared would explode, “is being cooled with water intermittently to maintain a sufficient temperature to prevent combustion.” “ A secondary fire fueled by an oil spill from the area was also extinguished. No oil had contaminated Matanzas Bay, officials said. The second explosion on Saturday injured more than 100 people, many first responders, and 24 remain in hospital, five of them in critical condition. “We are facing a fire of such magnitude that it is very difficult to control it in Cuba, where there are not all the means required,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told reporters. On Sunday, 82 Mexicans and 35 Venezuelans with experience fighting fuel fires joined the effort, bringing four planes of chemical fire extinguishers. “The help is important, I would say it’s vital and it will be decisive,” Diaz-Canel said. Cuba used water and helicopters to fight the flames. Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Latin American and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program, said each tank at the facility can store 300,000 barrels and provide fuel to power plants. Cuba experiences daily blackouts and fuel shortages. The loss of fuel and storage capacity is likely to worsen the situation, which has sparked small local protests in recent months. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Marc Frank. Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Daniel Wallis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
