A lightning strike at an oil storage facility on Saturday in Matansas caused afire, which injured nearly 80 people and 17 people in four explosions and flames. Firefighters were left behind. Missing, Cuban officials said.
Firefighters and other experts were trying to extinguish the flames at Matanzas Super Tanker Base, where the fire broke out during a thunderstorm on Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted. The government later said it sought help from international experts in "friendly countries" with experience in the oil sector.
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According to the official Cuban news agency, lightning struck one tank and caused a fire, after which the flame spread to the second tank. As a military helicopter flew overhead, dropping water on fire, a dense pillar of black smoke swirled from the facility and stretched more than 100 km (62 miles) west toward Havana.
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According to the Matanzas government Facebook page, 77 people were injured and 17 were missing It has become. The President of the Republic said the 17 were "firefighters in the nearest area trying to prevent the spread."
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An accident occurs when Cuba is suffering from a fuel shortage. There was no immediate word about how much oil was burned or endangered in a storage facility with eight huge tanks holding the oil used to fuel the power plant. ..
"I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. Smoke and a terrible pillar of fire rose from the sky," resident Adiel Gonzalez called the Associated Press. "There is a strong smell of sulfur in this city."
Authorities said the Dubrock district closest to the fire had been evacuated, but Gonzales Leaves the Versailles district a short distance from the tank farm, which some people have decided to add.
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Many ambulances and police are on the streets of Matanzas, a city with about 140,000 inhabitants in Matanzas Bay. , A fire engine was seen.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz Cannell visited the area of the fire early Saturday, officials said.
Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of an area with a thick black smoke plume moving west from the point of fire and reaching Havana to the east.
"The plume can be close to 150km long," Pila wrote in her Twitter account.
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