the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorreported this Monday that at least 85 soldiers were sent to help quell the fire occurred in fuel tanks in the city of killings, in western Cuba.
“We send support to the brotherly people of Cuba, due to a fire in some fuel tanks, they were specialists from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and they were elements from the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena),” he said from the National Palace, according to the agency. Eph.
Morning press conference, from the National Palace https://t.co/iApb5fHFhf
– Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) August 8, 2022
In his usual morning conference, López Obrador also assured that more military elements and elements from the Mexican state oil company will be sent if necessary to support the work in Cuba.
“If necessary, yes (we send more), but we already have the technicians and we have the foam that is used to fight fires and we are going to continue helping,” he said, quoted by the Spanish media.
“We hope that the fire can be put out. It’s been complicated, quite complicated and we’re going to keep helping,” she added.
The fire in the city of Matanzas began on Friday afternoon, after the explosion of a first deposit of gas where 25.00 cubic meters of oil were stored, presumably due to an electric lightning strike.
Last Sunday there was also the collapse of a second storage tank, while this Monday the fire was reported in a third tank, which has caused the fire to continue and long clouds of smoke to reach the Cuban capital of Havana.
Since last Saturday, President López Obrador commented that Mexican elements would be sent to support the work of controlling the mega fire in Cuba, although he had not specified how many.
He said that these are technical specialists in putting out fires, which are made up of elements from Sedena, the Secretary of the Navy and Pemex, he points out Eph. For this action, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has expressed his gratitude to the Mexican government and other countries for their solidarity “in the face of this complex situation.”
“We express deep gratitude to the Governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile, which have promptly offered solidary material aid in the face of this complex situation. We also appreciate the US offering technical advice,” he shared in a tweet.
??
At this moment the president @DiazCanelB is meeting at the Command Post with the teams of #Mexico Y #Venezuelathat helped to #Cuba in this difficult moment. Tactical strategies for dealing with the incident on the ground are valued. #ForceMatanzas #CubaEsMatanzas pic.twitter.com/tIkumr9FZr
— Cuba Presidency ?? (@PresidenciaCuba) August 8, 2022
Mexican experts have joined their Venezuelan and local counterparts to carry out containment actions, and establish strategies to control the incident and quell it as soon as possible.
Several aircraft of the Mexican army have landed during the last hours at the Juan Gualberto Gómez international airport, in the Varadero resort and very close to the catastrophe area, loaded with supplies and techniques to fight this large-scale fire.
