15/08/2022
U&I Logistics - After nearly 5 days of non-stop efforts, on the evening of August 9, Cuban firefighters contained a fire at an oil storage depot at Matanzas industrial park due to a lightning strike on the evening of August 5.
On the evening of August 5, 2022, an oil tank in Matanzas Industrial Park (Cuba) was struck by lightning, causing a large fire and spreading to 4 other tanks in the following days, despite the efforts of the local fire brigade and the support of more than 100 reinforcements from Mexico and Venezuela.One firefighter was killed, 14 reported missing and more than 100 injured from burns and inhalation of toxic fumes, authorities said.
Firefighters have finally overcome what officials described as the worst fire in Cuba’s history that blazed over five days and destroyed 40 percent of the Caribbean island’s main fuel storage facility and caused enormous power outages.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Ed Augustin said raging flames that had ravaged a four-tank segment of the Matanzas super tanker port had died down and the towering plumes of thick black smoke streaming from the port were now mostly grey.
“The blaze finally seems to be under control, you can see a huge amount of smoke billowing out but crucially, the colour has changed. For the last three days, the colour has been a deep soot black. Now it’s a light shade of grey, evidence that much of the fire has been smothered”, Augustin said, speaking from Matanzas port.
Additional helicopters joined the effort to put out the fire on Tuesday, along with two fireboats sent by Mexico and heavy firefighting equipment. Later in the day, firefighters for the first time were able to enter the area and spray foam and water on the still smouldering remains of the fuel tanks.
Officials have not said how much fuel has been lost in the fire. Authorities said that no oil had contaminated the nearby Matanzas Bay. Still, they warned residents as far away as the capital Havana – located approximately 60 miles (130 kilometres) from the port – to wear face masks and avoid possible acid rain due to the large plume of smoke the fire generated.
The Matanzas fuel depot, built in the 1980s and modernised several times, supplies Cuba’s Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest power generation plant in the communist nation.
Cuba, which is still under heavy US sanctions, is all but bankrupt.
Frequent power blackouts and shortages of gasoline and other commodities had already created a tense situation on the island with scattered local protests that continued after last summer’s historic unrest in July.
“The problem with (electricity generation) has not been the lack of fuel, but the plants are very old and have maintenance problems,” said Jorge Pinon, a Cuban expert in energy policy at the University of Texas.
“Now they will also have a lack of fuel,” Pinon said.
“If they lose Matanzas, they lose the ability to supply the power plants,” he said.
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