Although the Cuban government considered the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base to be under control on Wednesday, five days after the fire started, this Thursday he acknowledged that firefighters have not yet been able to access the epicenter of the disaster due to the intense heat it gives off. They will not be able to do it, estimated the Presidency, before Saturday.
It will be then, they insist, when they can “rescue the bodies”, disappeared in the place after the explosion of the second affected tank and while trying to extinguish the first, struck by lightning on Friday night, according to the official version.
Authorities have only confirmed two deaths so far: firefighters Juan Carlos Santana Garrido60 years old, and Elier Correa24, who until this Thursday was struggling in the hospital between life and death.
However, they have not made public the list of the missing 14for the most part young people who were passing their Military Service and who were sent without experience to mitigate the flames, although this has not been recognized by the regime.
“The president was aware that those children were there,” referring to Miguel Díaz-Canel, from whom he assures he took the promise to bring those responsible to justice.
On social media, meanwhile, outrage grows of relatives, what are they wondering “Who is going to take responsibility for bringing those inexperienced kids to such a dangerous scene.” Who identifies himself as the father of one of the missing boys declared to the self-employed construction Yamil Rodriguez that the authorities told the relatives that the disappeared had died, but that “they had not collected anything, they had not done anything”, alluding to the recovery of the bodies.
Likewise, it accuses “one of the leaders” of the fire department as directly guilty of the decision to send the interns of the Military Service to contain the fire, before specialists analyzed the situation and against the law. In any case, he also asserts, “the president was aware that those children were there,” referring to Miguel Díaz-Canel, from whom he assures he extracted the promise to bring those responsible to justice.
Nothing mentions of this this Friday the official press, which reopens its covers with the “feat” of having controlled the fire. Nor do they offer explanations for the increase in wounded, to 130, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Public Healthof which 23 are hospitalized: 4 critical, 2 serious and 17 with “care report”.
It is not known how much the cost of the incident could amount to, which had the additional consequence that the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, five kilometers from the Supertanker Base, was out of service due to lack of water for its cooling.
Similarly, at least in the capital, other collateral damage is being felt: the lack of fuel for automobiles and the power plants installed in case of blackouts, which run on diesel.
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