Airplanes with products, firefighters and specialists from Mexico Y Venezuela they arrived at Cuba to help put out this Sunday the fire of two oil tanks, which enters its third day with one dead, 17 missing and 36 hospitalized.
A Mexican Air Force Boeing 737-700 landed with 60 rescue personnel and 16 technicians from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) on board. Equipment and chemical products arrived in a second aircraft on a second plane.
LOOK HERE: Fire in Matanzas: Cuba confirms one dead, 17 missing firefighters and 121 injured | VIDEO
“We are here to help in the prevention of risks and to put out the fire with water and foam.”, said Brigadier General Juan Bravo, at the head of the expedition.
The flights landed at the airport in the Varadero resort, 40 km east of Matanzas, where two fuel tanks continue to burn uncontrollably since lightning caused the fire on Friday, according to authorities.
Strong flames and a tall column of black smoke rise from the supertanker base, in the industrial belt of this city of 140,000 inhabitants, located 100 km east of Havana.
In the early hours of the morning a Conviasa flight arrived from Venezuela with 35 firefighters, specialists and technicians from Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), who transported 20 tons of foam and other chemicals.
The most recent medical report reported that there are 121 injured, almost all from burns. 85 of them were discharged, 36 are hospitalized, of which five are in critical condition.
MORE INFORMATION: Cuba: seventy injured and 17 missing in fire
Likewise, 17 missing persons are reported. They are “firefighters who were in the area closest” to the fire, the Presidency of the Republic said on its Twitter account on Saturday.
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, on Saturday thanked the offers of help from Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile, as well as the offer of technical advice from the United States.