Cuba seeks help to contain depot fire

HAVANA: Cuba asked for help Saturday to contain a massive fire at a fuel depot that has left at least one person dead, 121 people injured and 17 firefighters missing. Some 1,900 people have been evacuated from the affected area, according to officials from the western Matanzas province, where lightning struck a fuel tank late Friday, triggering an explosion.

Provincial health official Luis Armando Wong told a press conference Saturday evening a first body had been recovered at the site. Five people were critically injured, according to an update by the Cuban presidency on Twitter, with three others in a very serious condition in hospital.

The wounded included Energy Minister Livan Arronte. The president’s office said 17 firefighters were missing, those “who were closest” to the fire in an industrial zone of Matanzas, a city some 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Havana.

“Cuba requested help and advice from friendly countries with experience in fuel” to help put out the fire, the presidency added in a statement. Later in the day, President Miguel Diaz-Canel expressed thanks to the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile, “which have promptly offered material aid.”

“We also appreciate the offer of technical advice from the US,” he added. The US embassy in Havana said on Twitter: “We want to make clear that US law authorizes US entities and organizations to provide disaster relief and response in Cuba.” The United States has had sanctions against the one-party Communist state for six decades.