PORT-AU-PRINCE (CMC) — A tanker truck exploded Saturday in southwestern Haiti killing at least 24 people and injuring over 60 people.
According to police reports, in the midst of the tragedy, some residents, unaware of the danger, were recovering the fuel that was leaking from the tanker truck as it was losing fuel following the deadly accident with another truck.
The Civil Protection Directorate (DPC) of the town of Nippes, to the south of here, proceeded to the partial activation of the Departmental Emergency Operation Center (COUD) to ensure the coordination and control of operations.
The first provisional assessment of the region mentioned 16 deaths, but according to Emmanuel Pierre, the National Director General of Civil Protection, other charred bodies were discovered late Saturday near the site of the explosion, increasing the provisional assessment from 16 to 24 deaths.
Nineteen of the injured who were severely burned were scheduled to be transferred to specialized hospitals in Port-au-Prince on a flight co-organized by the Ministry of Public Health and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Meanwhile, interim Prime Minister Garry Conille convened an emergency meeting following the tragedy.
“I am truly sorry for the explosion of the gasoline tanker that occurred in Miragoâne. I am talking with the local authorities concerned in Nippes and mobilizing the General Directorate of Civil Protection, Public Health, and Social Affairs to save the lives of the seriously injured,” said Pierre.
“This is a horrible scene, what I have just witnessed,” he said on going to the scene of the tragedy. s
Conille assured the families of the victims of his support and said he had instructed the Ministry of Public Health and other sectoral institutions to give the benefit of the emergency to the patients and victims of this tragedy.
In 2021, 75 people were killed in Haiti’s second largest city Cap Haitien, when another fuel truck overturned and unleashed a fireball that swept through several homes and businesses that were built closely next to each other.
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