A fire that raged for a week in early August at a fuel depot in western Cuba killed 16 firefighters, 14 of whom could not be identified, according to the president of the Cuban Forensic Society.

As a result of the fire, two firefighters died, 14 more are missing. Yesterday, Jorge González Perez, president of the Cuban Forensic Society, confirmed that the missing persons died at the crash site.

The funeral of the fallen will take place tomorrow Friday, said the President of Cuba, who also declared two days of national mourning.

A fire caused by a lightning strike broke out on August 5 at a fuel depot in Matanzas, the largest in Cuba, 100 km east of Havana.

Four huge tanks were burned, containing up to 52 million liters of crude oil or fuel oil. There were eight such tanks at the facility.

^{Source: APE-MPE, AFP.}