Dozens injured as lightning strikes fire at Cuban oil storage facility

Four explosions and flames left nearly 80 people injured and 17 firefighters missing in a fire sparked by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility in the Cuban city of Matanzas, authorities said.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted that firefighters and other experts were still working to put out a blaze at the Matanzas supertanker base, which started during a thunderstorm Friday night.

The government later said it had sought help from international experts with oil industry experience in “friendly countries”.

The official Cuban news agency said lightning struck one tank, starting a fire that then spread to a second tank. As military helicopters flew overhead, dousing the blaze, thick plumes of black smoke billowed from the facility and traveled more than 62 miles westward, toward Havana.

The Matanzas provincial government’s Facebook page said the number of injured had reached 77, while 17 were missing. The Palace of the President of the Republic said the 17 were “firefighters trying to stop the spread of the epidemic in the most recent areas”.

The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. There is no word yet on how much oil has burned or is in danger at the storage facility, which has eight huge tanks used to store oil used to fuel power plants.

“I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. A plume of smoke and terrible flames rose from the sky,” said resident Adiel Gonzalez.

Authorities said the Dubrocq community closest to the fire had been evacuated, while Mr Gonzalez added that some had decided to leave the Versailles district, which is a little further from the oil depot.

Ambulances, police and fire trucks were present on the streets of Matanzas, a city of about 140,000 residents on Matanzas Bay.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel went to the scene of the fire Saturday, officials said.

Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of the area, with thick black smoke moving west from the fire point and east to Havana.

“That plume could be close to 150 kilometers long,” he wrote on his Twitter account.