The body of Lázaro Frank Montero Pita, 57, was found this Saturday afternoon inside the chimney of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, in the province of Matanzas, which suffered the collapse of part of its structure on Friday the 7th April leaving four men trapped. The deceased resided in Havana and worked at the Specialized Construction and Assembly Company.
As reported by the Girón newspaper, rescuers and Red Cross personnel entered the chimney to search for the fourth worker, after the crane opened a hole to evacuate the debris and soot that made any work in that area difficult. of the thermoelectric
In the collapse of part of the chimney structure, a total of two workers died: Montero Pita and Alexis Bernardo Labrada, 47 years old. The collapse also left two injured, Maikel López Navarro, 35, with a pelvic fracture, without danger to life and who remains in the general surgery room of the Faustino Pérez Hospital in Matanzas, and Ángel Dioris Pérez Montoya, 30. years old, who was discharged from the hospital on Saturday morning.
The employees were trapped when a seven-meter-high wall or “partition” collapsed on them, who were cleaning the soot from the plant’s chimney at 2:30 p.m. this Friday. The discovery of the body of Montero Pita took more than a day due to the danger that accessing the chimney posed to firefighters and rescue personnel.
This Saturday morning, the general director of Guiteras, Misbel Palmero, announced that a “hammer” would be made available to the rescue workers, used in the remodeling of the Saratoga hotel in Havana, partially destroyed by an explosion in May 2022, to “break the outer wall” and “access and remove the soot by another way.”
The employees were trapped when a seven-meter-high wall or “partition” collapsed on them, who were cleaning the soot from the plant’s chimney at 2:30 p.m. this Friday.
Lieutenant Colonel William González Hernández, head of the Civil Defense of the Matanzas Military Region, explained then that the strategy to finish the rescue consisted of opening three holes in the walls of the chimney, designed to evacuate residues, which would allow the rubble to drain. and the soot.
Engineer Miyail Góngora Aldaya, from the Raw Materials Recovery Company, said that it was necessary to resort to heavy equipment with rotary shears to safely undertake the work. The operation did not endanger the structure of the 110-meter-high chimney, says the specialist.
The incident has caused deep concern among Cubans who have seen the tragic moments experienced during the Supertanker fire relive in a few hours, also in the province of Matanzas, in August 2022. An incident in which 17 people lost their lives. Two months earlier, the explosion of the Saratoga hotel in Havana had left a tragic balance of 46 deaths.
Popular concern also extends to the possible repercussions of the thermoelectric collapse on the already battered national energy system.
The Antonio Guiteras plant –the largest in the country and with French technology– has been in use for 35 years and was inaugurated in 1988. For decades, its facilities have lacked the necessary maintenance required by thermoelectric plants that process nationally extracted oil, with a high sulfur content and highly corrosive to metals.
According to the official Ecured encyclopedia, the plant from Matanzas is the “most efficient generating unit” of the National Electric System (SEN), with a generation capacity, under normal conditions, of more than 280 megawatts per hour.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time making you a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
