MIAMI, United States.- This Monday night another Mexican Air Force plane arrived in Matanzas, Cuba, with supplies to deal with the fire at the Supertanker Base, according to the state media outlet Cubadebate.
“Another plane from the Mexican air force arrives in Matanzas. According to Matanzas journalist Daniel Santiesteban Hechavarría, a few minutes ago a plane from the Mexican Air Force arrived in Matanzas through the Juan Gualberto Gómez international airport in Varadero,” Cubadebate said on Twitter.
In a subsequent publication, the state media explained that “the plane brings four tons of retardant foam to deal with the large fire at the Matanzas supertanker base.”
The large-scale fire that broke out on Friday, August 5 due to lightning, according to the Cuban government, has spread uncontrollably to three of the eight fuel tanks at the Supertanker Base, in the Matanzas industrial zone. .
The situation at the scene, according to Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Ávalos Jorge, deputy chief of the National Extinction Department of the Cuban Fire Department, “remains complex.”
At a press conference just a few hours ago, Ávalos Jorge explained that “the four tanks are compromised and the outlook is difficult due to the high temperatures, the size of the tanks and the wind, factors that constantly change the confrontation strategies, for this we have the experience of Mexico and Venezuela.”
“We have developed cooling actions, but they have become very difficult. This type of fire is unprecedented in the history of Cuba,” he added.
The priority is to prevent the spread of the disaster, “which extends to the areas near the generator sets, and for this the cooling of the tanks must first be achieved, which is a vital step in these processes, and then they must be applied foam”.
For his part, the lieutenant colonel said that it is impossible to calculate when everything will end, since it may take several more days.
“We have the collaboration to make it as fast as possible, but it does not depend only on our attitude,” he said.
For the Cuban authorities “so far there is no possibility that the flames spread to the Guiteras thermoelectric plant,” and “work is being done so that they do not reach terminal 321, where there are products such as gasoline.”
On the afternoon of this Monday there were at least two more explosions at the Matanzas Supertanker Base that would have been in tank number three, as the government acknowledged after having said no.
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