MIAMI, United States.- The state media outlet Cubadebate reported this Tuesday afternoon that four of the eight fuel tanks at the Matanzas Supertanker Base have collapsed.
According to one publication On the Twitter social network, the Cuban Fire Department confirmed the information after an “exploration of the place.”
“Shortly after 5:30 p.m. this Tuesday, the Cuban Fire Department reported: After an exploration of the place, they verified that the fourth tank collapsed. The four tanks are melted”, reads the post.
“We are working successfully to extinguish the fire, because there are still flames on the surface of the tanks, although they are not significant. They prevented the spread of the fire to the rest of the base facilities,” adds the official media.
According to the Cuban authorities, the firefighters who are at the scene of the incident are preparing to use “extinguishing substances” and thus give a “blunt blow to the combustion. This action takes security and a lot of precision”.
“The fire is not completely controlled, but progress has been made in its containment. The risk continues,” they said.
Until this Tuesday, August 9, Cuba has received 20 planes from Mexico and Venezuela, with a total of 127 disaster specialists “who operate jointly with Cuban forces.”
The last aircraft to land on the island was one of the Mexican Armed Forces, according to the Cuban press, and “in a matter of seconds a dozen workers” unloaded the supplies that were traveling on the plane.
The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has sent to Cuba in this latest shipment about 45,000 liters of retardant foam, which “have been unloaded” and “added to the equipment that was brought this Tuesday. Among them eight breathable air tanks with armor, compressor, hoses for the autonomous air rack and plastic containers with accessories”.
The fire, caused on the evening of Friday, August 5, by lightning, has left nearly 5,000 people evacuated, 125 injured, 14 firefighters remain missing and two have been publicly identified as fatalities of the incident.
This Tuesday afternoon at conversation with CubaNetCuban doctor Alexander Figueredo drew attention to the health consequences of the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base.
The cloud of pollutants that surrounds that province, and that has already reached Havana and Mayabeque, can cause a series of diseases and ailments in the short, medium and long term in Cubans, and the regime has not addressed the issue with the responsibility it requires, warns the doctor.
For Figueredo, little has been reported in the official press about what should be done, and in reality he considers that many more people should be evacuated from areas surrounding the incident.
“Environmental contamination of this nature brings health complications, mainly to the respiratory tract,” explained the doctor.
Asthmatics are the most affected by this situation, and the repercussion is immediate, also for those who suffer from chronic respiratory diseases.
“In the long term it can cause pneumonia and lung cancer, which can be a little later. Cardiovascular, nervous system, liver, and kidney diseases can also appear in the long term,” Figueredo told journalist Camila Acosta during an interview.
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +1 (786) 316-2072, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
