Havana
Cuba’s government orders national mourning after major fire
Flames and smoke rise from the burning fuel storage facility near the port of Matanzas. photo
© Ismael Francisco/AP/dpa
A fire destroys large parts of a fuel depot, two firefighters die fighting the flames, and other people are missing. In Cuba, the flags fly at half-mast.
After the devastating fire in a fuel depot in northern Cuba, the government in Havana ordered a one-day national mourning. From Thursday morning to Friday evening (local time), the flags on public buildings and military bases are to be flown at half-mast, the Presidential Office announced on Wednesday.
A severe fire recently destroyed large parts of a fuel storage facility in Matanzas. A total of four of the eight tanks on the site were damaged. Around 130 people were treated in the hospital after the fire. 17 patients were still in the hospital on Wednesday, several of them seriously injured. Two firefighters died fighting the fire. 14 others were still missing.
The president of the Cuban Society of Forensic Medicine, Jorge González, said in a press conference in Havana that 14 groups of bone fragments were found at the scene of the fire. DNA analyzes are not possible on them, they cannot be clearly assigned to specific people. During the fire, temperatures between 1000 and 2000 degrees prevailed – more than in the oven of a crematorium.