Six patients remain hospitalized after major fire in Cuba

Havana, Oct 3 (Prensa Latina) Cuba reported on Monday that the number of patients hospitalized after the fire of August 5 in fuel depots in the western city of Matanzas has decreased to six.

According to the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), 146 patients have been treated, 139 of them male and seven female.

Six adults, all men, remain hospitalized: three are seriously ill and another three are in hospital care.

The patients are being treated in four health centers in Cuba, and of the 123 medical discharges granted, 116 were men and seven women. The death toll, MINSAP recalled, is 17 so far.

The incident occurred on the night of August 5 when an electrical discharge during a storm hit fuel storage tank 52 at the Supertanker Base, located in the industrial zone of the city of Matanzas.

The flames, put out with the help of specialized means and forces from Venezuela and Mexico, devastated a total of four tanks, each with a capacity of 50,000 cubic meters of fuel (50 million liters).