The toll is heavy: 4,000 residents evacuated, 122 people hospitalized, one firefighter officially deceased, sixteen others missing.
It all started Friday night. Lightning would have struck one of the eight oil depots in Matanzas, a city of 140,000 inhabitants located 40 kilometers from Varadero. The fire gains a second oil depot on Saturday. A few minutes before midnight on Sunday, a gigantic explosion rang out at the scene of the tragedy. The Cuban Communist Party announces that a third depot has caught fire, before denying the information on Monday.
Read alsoTourism in Cuba: what has changed since the pandemic
More than 4,000 residents were evacuated and 122 people hospitalized. If a firefighter is officially dead, sixteen others from the nearby Varadero airport brigade are missing.
United States Technical Assistance
Faced with the technical puzzle of controlling this mega-fire of exceptional intensity, President Miguel Diaz-Canel requested international assistance. Specialized teams from Mexico and Venezuela, countries with oil expertise that Cuba does not have, arrived on the island this weekend. A sign of the seriousness of the event, the communist authorities…
This article is for subscribers only. You have 73% left to discover.
Freedom has no borders, like your curiosity.
Keep reading your article for €0.99 for the first month
Already subscribed? Login