By Mircely Guanipa and Tibisay Romero
CARACAS (Reuters) – At least 18 people including workers, neighbors and firefighters have been reported injured due to a fire at a crude storage tank in Venezuela’s La Salina oil terminal, sources with knowledge of the facility’s operations said on Tuesday.
The fire broke out early in the day during a storm and was raging through the afternoon. The facility, which is operated by state oil company PDVSA mostly for domestic use, is located near the western city of Cabimas on the shore of Lake Maracaibo.
“They are calculating 18 people injured including firefighters from Cabimas, PDVSA (workers) and also locals,” one of the sources said.
PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment.
Firefighters said earlier on Tuesday they were working to control and suffocate the balls of fire, which left a tall plume of black smoke, according to videos seen by Reuters.
An explosion was heard by neighbors later, two of the sources said, adding that foam applied to extinguish this type of oil-related fires was being used.
“There was a boil over,” another source said. “That’s what you see in the videos.”
The nearby Bajo Grande terminal, used by PDVSA and U.S. producer Chevron (NYSE:) to export crude and fuel, was unaffected by the incident, sources close to operations said.
