Tanker explosion kills at least 59 in Haiti
14 December 2021
A fuel tanker explosion killed at least 59 people on December 14 in Haiti’s second largest city, Cap-Haitien. The number of injured remains unknown with the death toll expected to rise.
Representative image: Shutterstock
Cap-Haitien’s Mayor Pierre Yvrose told Reuters news agency that the city’s hospital was stretched thin and that medical resources were desperately needed.
The incident happened after a fuel truck overturned at around midnight. The blast damaged several nearby buildings and left dozens of people dead at the scene. Around 50 houses in total were damaged, most of which will need to be demolished, reports say. Emergency services and locals covered the bodies with white sheets while transporting wounded people to hospital.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry tweeted: “I learned, with desolation and emotion, the sad news of the explosion, last night, in Cap-Haitien, of a tanker truck which transported gasoline and which caused, according to a partial report, about forty dead, dozens injured, as well as extensive material damage.”
Henry added that three days of national mourning had been declared by the government and that field hospitals would be set up near the scene to help treat the wounded.