প্রকাশ: 07/08/2022
A massive oil-fed
fire burned for a second day on Saturday near Cuba's supertanker port in
Matanzas, as Mexico and Venezuela sent teams to help fight the inferno and Cuba
accepted a US offer of unspecified "technical advice".
On Friday evening, lightning struck one of eight storage
tanks at the facility 60 miles east of Havana. Heat from the blaze reached a
second tankon Saturday and the wind blew flames dangerously close to a third.
"We express deep gratitude to the governments of
Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Chile ... which have promptly offered material aid
in the face of this complex situation," tweeted Cuban President Miguel
Diaz-Canel.
"We also appreciate the offer of technical advice from
the US," he said.
Cuban authorities said at least 121 people were injured in
the second blast, of which 36 remained hospitalized, five in critical
condition. One person was listed as dead and 17 firefighters were unaccounted
for. More than 1,000 civilians were evacuated from the area.
"There was a very big explosion yesterday around
8pm and today at 5am a second explosion so big it lit up the area
like the sun," local resident Alfredo Gonzalez said.
Diaz-Canel visited the scene around midnight, then returned
to spend Saturday coordinating the response as state-run television broadcast
live coverage of the unfolding disaster.
Before the second blast, Diaz-Canel posted on Twitter that
first responders were "trying to avert the spread of the flames and any
spill of fuel" into the Matanzas bay.
Military helicopters were dumping seawater on nearby storage
tanks as smoke reached Havana and residents were warned to avoid acid rain.
Cuba has been suffering daily blackouts and fuel shortages.
The loss of fuel and storage capacity is likely to aggravate the situation
which has led to small local protests in the last few months.
Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin's
Latin America and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program, said the area had
eight big tanks each with a capacity of 300,000 barrels.
"The area is a transshipment point for fuel to various
thermo-electric plants, not just the one nearby, so this could be very bad news
for the power grid," he said.
- Reuters
প্রধান সম্পাদকঃ সৈয়দ বোরহান কবীর
ক্রিয়েটিভ মিডিয়া লিমিটেডের অঙ্গ প্রতিষ্ঠান
বার্তা এবং বাণিজ্যিক কার্যালয়ঃ ২/৩ , ব্লক - ডি , লালমাটিয়া , ঢাকা -১২০৭
নিবন্ধিত ঠিকানাঃ বাড়ি# ৪৩ (লেভেল-৫) , রোড#১৬ নতুন (পুরাতন ২৭) , ধানমন্ডি , ঢাকা- ১২০৯
ফোনঃ +৮৮-০২৯১২৩৬৭৭