Tanker truck explosion killed 61 people and injured nearly 100 in Haiti

The explosion of a tanker truck loaded with fuel in Cap-Haitien, in northern Haiti, caused the death of at least 61 people on Tuesday and caused about a hundred injuries, in an accident derived from the deep crisis that the country is going through. The flares reached a large group of people who were trying to loot the truck, overturned on a street after suffering an accident, and caused extensive damage to at least 20 homes located in the area of the accident. The Mayor’s Office of Cap-Haitien estimates that about a hundred people were injured, among which at least 15 patients in serious condition have been evacuated by air to other cities.THE ACCIDENTThe tanker truck crashed this morning, shortly after midnight, when trying to dodge a motorcycle on a curve and overturned on a street in Pont Grand Bois et Samarie, a popular neighborhood in the center of Cap-Haitien, the second largest city in the country, deputy mayor Patrick Almonord told Efe.Then, dozens of people swirled around the tanker truck to try to steal the fuel, a precious commodity in Haiti, in the midst of the fuel shortage crisis that has affected the country since last October. Even though the driver forbade them to approach the tanker, people assaulted the truck. They were interested in fuel. People came with a hammer to hit the cistern. Dozens of charred bodies were scattered on the street, while the fire and the shock wave caused extensive damage to the houses near the truck, which was reduced to a jumble of irons. Collapsed hospitalsNumerous injured were treated on the floor of the city’s two main medical centers, Justinien University Hospital and Convention Baptiste Hospital, which ran out of beds due to the large influx of injured, according to images spread on social networks. Almonord explained that the emergency room of the Justinien hospital, the largest in the city, “is not large,” so it was “overwhelmed.” Immediately, the Haitian government sent doctors and first responders from the capital to set up two field hospitals and support the city’s medical centers, while UN agencies sent emergency medical shipments. At least 15 seriously injured were transferred by air to Port-au-Prince and the city of Hinche, to be treated in hospitals specialized in the treatment of serious burns, according to Civil Protection.The Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, decreed three days of official mourning, traveled to the city on Tuesday to know first-hand the situation after the explosion and announced the release of emergency funds to assist the The accident occurred at a time when Haiti has failed to solve the fuel supply problems caused in recent months. The fuel shortage was triggered last October due to the action of armed gangs, which in recent months multiplied robberies and kidnappings against truck drivers. The gangs even blocked access to fuel depots in the port of Port-au-Prince, to blackmail the government.This crisis came to paralyze the economic activities of much of the country for a couple of weeks in October and generated a black market in which fuel prices soared. Petroleum products are the main source of energy in the country, since they feed the electric generators used by all companies and public institutions, as well as many citizens in their homes, to cope with frequent blackouts. Haiti is going through the most serious wave of violence in decades, in the context of serious political instability, aggravated by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, perpetrated on July 7.

Original source in Spanish