A fire that raged for a week in early August at an oil depot in western Cuba killed 16 firefighters, 14 of whom could not be identified, a forensic expert said.
Authorities said two firefighters were killed and 14 others were missing. The president of the Cuban Society of Forensic Medicine, Jorge González Pérez, said at a press conference that the missing persons died at the crash site.
“Because the found remains were exposed to high temperatures for a long time, it is not possible to conduct DNA from them,” he added.
The Cuban president said the victims would be buried on Friday and declared two days of national mourning.
A fire caused by a lightning strike broke out on August 5 at the Matanzas oil depot, 100 km east of Havana.
Four of eight tanks holding up to 52 million liters of crude oil or fuel oil caught fire at the country’s largest oil depot.
