By Andrea Rodriguez | Related Press
HAVANA — A lethal hearth that started at a big oil storage facility in western Cuba unfold on Monday, threatening to plunge the island right into a deeper vitality disaster because it pressured officers to close down a key thermoelectric plant.
Flames round daybreak enveloped a 3rd tank that firefighters had tried to chill as they battle to battle the huge blaze that started simply days after the federal government introduced scheduled blackouts for the capital of Havana.
A minimum of one individual has died and 125 are injured, with one other 14 reported lacking ever since lighting struck one of many facility’s eight tanks on Friday evening. A second tank caught hearth on Saturday, triggering a number of explosions on the facility, which performs a key half in Cuba’s electrical system.
“The danger we had introduced occurred, and the blaze of the second tank compromised the third one,” mentioned Mario Sabines, governor of the western province of Matanzas the place the power is positioned.
Firefighters had sprayed water on the remaining tanks over the weekend to chill them however did not cease the hearth from spreading. On Monday afternoon, the federal government’s energy firm introduced that the hearth had pressured the shut down a thermoelectric plant that gives energy to the island’s western area after it ran out of water, in response to the official Cubadebate web site. No additional particulars have been instantly obtainable.
The governments of Mexico and Venezuela have despatched particular groups to assist extinguish the hearth, with water cannons, planes and helicopters preventing the hearth from a number of instructions as navy constructions specialists erected limitations to include oil spills.
Native officers warned residents to make use of face masks or keep indoors given the billowing smoke enveloping the area that may be seen from the capital of Havana, positioned greater than 65 miles (100 kilometers) away. Officers have warned that the cloud comprises sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and different toxic substances.
The vast majority of these injured have been handled for burns and smoke inhalation, and 5 of them stay in vital situation. A complete of 24 stay hospitalized. Over the weekend, authorities discovered the physique of 1 firefighter as kin of these nonetheless lacking gathered at a resort to await information about their family members.
Sabines and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned it was not possible to seek for the lacking firefighters given the roiling temperatures.
The blaze on the Matanzas Supertanker Base in Matanzas metropolis prompted officers to evacuate greater than 4,900 folks, most of them from the close by Dubrocq neighborhood. The ability’s eight enormous tanks maintain oil used to generate electrical energy, though it wasn’t clear how a lot gas has been misplaced on account of the flames. The primary tank that caught hearth was at 50% capability and contained practically 883,000 cubic ft (25,000 cubic meters) of gas. The second tank was full.
Jorge Piñon, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Vitality Program on the College of Texas, mentioned officers ought to examine the partitions of tanks that aren’t on hearth to make sure they weren’t affected. He additionally warned that the federal government should be cautious earlier than bringing the system again on-line as soon as the hearth is extinguished.
“If not, there’ll be one other disaster,” he mentioned. “Sadly, that is going to take time.”
Piñon famous that the power receives Cuban crude oil — working an oil pipeline that crosses the middle of the nation — to be transferred through small tankers to the thermoelectric vegetation that produce electrical energy. It is usually the unloading and transshipment middle for imported crude oil, gas oil and diesel, with Cuba producing solely half of the gas required to maintain its financial system afloat.
The blaze comes as Cuba struggles by means of a deep financial disaster and faces frequent energy outages amid a sweltering summer time, points that helped unleashed unprecedented antigovernment protests final 12 months. Officers haven't supplied a preliminary estimate of damages.