Fire started by a lightning strike has engulfed an oil storage facility in the Cuban city of Matanzas, setting off explosions and injuring 121 people. Seventeen firefighters were missing and one body had been found, Cuban authorities said.
The blaze at the Matanzas supertanker base began during a thunderstorm on Friday night, the ministry of energy and mines tweeted. The government said later that it had asked for help from international experts in “friendly countries” with experience in the oil sector.
The official Cuban news agency said lightning hit one tank, starting a fire, and the blaze later spread to a second tank. As military helicopters flew overhead dropping water on the blaze, a dense column of black smoke billowed from the facility and spread westward more than 100km (62 miles) toward Havana.
Roberto de la Torre, head of fire operations in Matanzas, said firefighters were spraying water on intact tanks trying to keep them cool in hopes of preventing the fire from spreading.
Some of the injured were taken to Calixto García hospital in Havana, which has a prominent burn unit.
The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. There was no immediate word on how much oil had burned or was in danger at the storage facility, which has eight giant tanks that hold oil used to fuel electricity-generating plants.
“I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. A column of smoke and terrible fire rose through the skies,” resident Adiel Gonzalez told the Associated Press. “The city has a strong smell of sulphur.”
Authorities said about 800 people were evacuated from the Dubrocq neighbourhood closest to the fire, while Gonzalez added that some people decided to leave the Versailles district, which is a little further from the tank farm.
Many ambulances, police and fire engines were seen in the streets of Matanzas, a city with about 140,000 inhabitants on Matanzas Bay.
The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, travelled to the area of the fire early Saturday, officials said.
Miguel Díaz-Canel thanked Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile for their offers of help. A support flight from Mexico arrived on Saturday night.
Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of the area with a dense plume of black smoke moving from the point of the fire westward and reaching east to Havana.
“That plume can be close to 150km long,” Pila wrote on his Twitter account.