The Cuban authorities announced: “The fire, which lasted more than a week at an oil depot in the western part of the country, was extinguished, as a result, two people were killed, 132 were injured, 17 were missing, about 1,900 people were evacuated. from the disaster zone.

The Cuban presidency said in a statement on its official website that “60 medical examiners arrived in the disaster area in an attempt to find the bodies of the missing, as 17 people are missing as a result of the fire.”

Two fuel storage tanks exploded at an oil depot in the city of Matanzas on August 5 when a lightning strike struck one of the tanks and the fire later spread to three other tanks. This fire was considered the largest in Cuba and is located 100 kilometers east of the capital Havana.

Four tanks containing up to 52 million liters of crude oil or fuel oil were burned out of eight on site.

The loss of millions of liters of primary fuel to power the country’s power plants is expected to exacerbate the difficult electricity supply situation.

The Matanzas facility is Cuba’s largest port for the storage of imported crude oil and fuels. Cuban heavy oil, fuel oil and diesel stored in Matanzas are mainly used for electricity generation.

Cuba has received offers of help from several countries after asking for help fighting the fire.