A fire at an oil storage facility in the province of Matanzas. File photoMEXICO CITY, Aug 9 — RIA Novosti.In the port of the Cuban province of Matanzas, where an oil storage facility is on fire, the fire has already engulfed four tanks with a capacity of 50,000 tons, said Alexandre Avalos Jorge, deputy head of the National Fire Department of Cuba. -conference, the recording of which was published by Cubadebate. A strong fire started at a Cuban oil storage facility in the port of the province of Matanzas last Friday evening after a lightning strike in the dome of the tank, which contained about 25,000 cubic meters of oil. According to the latest information from the Ministry of Health, 22 of the 125 victims of the fire remain hospitalized, five are in critical condition. 16 people are listed as missing, one died. According to Alexander Avalos, such a fire has no precedent in the history of Cuba, and he cannot predict the extinguishing time — «it could take days.» In addition to trying to cool the burning tanks, firefighters are trying to prevent the spread of fire to the area of generator sets and terminal 321 with oil products and gasoline. Planes and helicopters, as well as specialists and equipment from Mexico and Venezuela, have already been received 14 
The President of Cuba thanked Russia for helping to extinguish the fireCuban scientists said they were studying rainwater samples and promised results in the very near future, at the moment, the danger of environmental pollution by precipitation «does not cause concern.» In the province of Matanzas, according to the governor, about 4,800 people were evacuated from the area of the incident. On Monday, a lack of water supply due to fire fighting in the port led to the shutdown of the large thermal power plant of Antonio Guiteras, the shortage of electricity in the national distribution system exceeded 1.1 GW. Generating company Union Electrica, in comments to local media, promised to solve the problem «within a few hours.»
