The PDVSA Industrial Brigade, with the support of Urban Firefighters, fights a free-combustion fire in the Ballast Lagoon of the Puerto La Cruz Refinery (Anzoátegui).
The information was released by General Carlos Pérez Ampueda, Vice Minister of Risk Management and Director of Civil Protection.
The fire broke out in the afternoon on Monday. In the work of suffocating the flames, foam is being used “to confine and prevent spread.”
The Oil Minister, Tareck El Aissami, reported that the explosion at the aforementioned facility “is due to a lightning strike that struck the refinery’s Oxidation and Water Treatment Lagoon.”
He assured that no other area of the refinery is compromised. “We are following up until we achieve full control,” he added.
This is the second fire that has occurred in the last two days in oil facilities located in Anzoátegui.
Last Saturday, El Aissami reported on the fire that occurred at the Guaraguao dock because “a gasoline loading arm broke, spilling fuel on the ship’s deck.”