A fire that broke out this Friday in one of the tanks at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, located in the Industrial Zone of that province, was controlled by firefighters with the support of cooperative forces from the Ministry of the Interior and other agencies, with no casualties reported, official sources stated.
According to the newspaper Girón, the fire started during maintenance work on a tank that was completely empty.
"While maintenance work was being carried out on an empty tank of the entity, an accident occurred that caused a fire, which was controlled by the forces of the Fire Department and other collaborators from the Ministry of the Interior and other agencies," the report specified.
The authorities ruled out any significant risk. According to Girón, "the incident poses no risk of spreading, nor to nearby residents," a reassurance that official sources hurried to communicate in light of the inevitable alarm that any incident at that facility generates.
The Super Tanker Base of Matanzas carries the burden of the biggest industrial disaster in recent Cuban history. On August 5, 2022, a lightning strike hit tank 52 of the facility, triggering a fire that spread to other storage tanks and devastated four of the eight tanks at the base.
The toll of the disaster was 17 fatalities, over 140 injured, and material losses estimated at around 66 million dollars. The fire took until August 12 to be extinguished, with the support of international brigades.
Since then, the installation has been under reconstruction. With the participation of Cuban and Chinese brigades, work is underway to build four new tanks of 50,000 cubic meters each, to recover a total storage capacity of 200,000 cubic meters. In September 2025, Chinese workers were placing the domes of the new deposits. The completion of the works was projected for this year.
In April last year, the state company CUPET reported that work was ongoing on the repair of another tank, with an intervention expected to be completed in May. This is not the first time the area has experienced a scare since 2022: in June 2024, a fire broke out in the brush near the base, which was contained without any material or human damages.
The new incident occurs at a particularly sensitive time for Cuba. The island is going through a deep energy crisis, with prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages affecting the entire population. The Supertanker Base is a strategic infrastructure for the storage of oil and its derivatives, so any mishap at its facilities has direct repercussions on the already deteriorated national energy system.
The collective trauma left by the tragedy of 2022 remains present. On August 5th, the fourth anniversary of the disaster, a tribute was paid to the 17 deceased. Just five weeks later, another fire broke out in the same facility, although this time, according to the authorities, without the devastating consequences that marked the fateful days of August 2022.
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