Havana, Aug. 7 (BNA) A massive oil fire burned for a second day on Saturday near the Cuban supertanker port of Matanzas, while Mexico and Venezuela sent teams to help fight the inferno.
Lightning Friday evening struck one of eight storage tanks at the facility 60 miles east of Havana.
The heat of the flames reached a second tank.
Cuban authorities said at least 121 people were injured in the second blast, of whom 36 remain in hospital, five in critical condition.
Reuters reported that one person was listed as dead and 17 firefighters were missing.
More than 1,000 civilians have been evacuated from the area.
Military helicopters were dumping seawater into nearby storage tanks as smoke reached Havana and residents were warned to avoid acid rain.
Cuba suffers from daily blackouts and fuel shortages.
The loss of fuel and storage capacity is likely to exacerbate a situation that has led to small local protests in the past few months.
The region has eight large reservoirs, each with a capacity of 300,000 barrels, said Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy and Environment Program in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The area is a fuel recharge point for various thermoelectric plants, not just the one nearby, so this could be very bad news for the power grid,” he said.
ZHB