One firefighter was killed during the liquidation of a strong fire at the storage of petroleum products in the city of Barranquilla in northern Colombia.
This was announced on Wednesday, December 21, by local authorities on their Twitter page.
“Nine cars of the Barranquilla fire service are extinguishing a fire in the fuel company, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Risk Management are working on site. We regret to announce the death of Sergeant Javier Enrique Solano Ruiz during this emergency,” the message reads.
Mayor Jaime Pumarejo called the deceased a hero, noting that he had worked as a firefighter for more than 25 years. Colombian President Gustavo Petro expressed his condolences to Ruiz’s family.
Rescuers and the military continue to work at the scene of the incident. Fire services used a reservoir near the oil storage to extinguish the fire.
For the safety of local residents, the area within a radius of 800 m from the fire was cordoned off.
At least one of the oil storage tanks exploded.
Earlier, on December 20, one person was killed and at least 13 injured in a fire on a Maltese-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Turkey. There were 17 people on board in total. According to local media, the captain of the ship was killed.
The causes of the incident are unknown. The ship’s crew was taken to the port of Sinop. Rescuers and firefighters immediately went to the scene.
