(Cap-Haitien) The toll of the explosion of a tanker truck on Tuesday in Haiti worsened to 75 dead, after the deaths on Wednesday of a dozen people seriously injured during the disaster, said Wednesday evening the director of Haitian civil protection.
“Our latest situation report shows 75 dead, 47 serious burns and 12 light burns” who are hospitalized across the country, Jerry Chandler, director of Haitian civil protection, told AFP.
“We are currently working hard to strengthen local health structures: our field hospital is at the end of its installation and we are planning 7 to 10 days of operation,” he explained.
The temporary structure, installed in the gymnasium of Cap-Haitien, the city where the tragedy occurred, will function in particular thanks to the material support of the World Health Organization and to the staff mobilized by the Haitian Ministry of Health, according to details provided by Jerry Chandler.
PHOTO ODELYN JOSEPH, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The explosion set cars and houses on fire, killing 66 and injuring dozens.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the driver of the tanker would have tried to avoid a collision with a motorcycle taxi, then losing control of his vehicle which overturned, said Tuesday Patrick Almonor, deputy mayor of the city of Cap-Haitien.
Following the accident, “members of the population took the opportunity to collect fuel by filling makeshift containers, which is the basis of a terrible explosion,” Jerry Chandler told AFP.
As of Tuesday, about twenty wounded were transferred to hospitals across the country, including that of the organization Médecins sans frontières in Port-au-Prince, the only structure in Haiti specializing in the care of severe burns.
“We operated all night and, for the moment, our 12 patients are stable,” said Jean Gilbert Ndong, MSF medical coordinator, on Wednesday morning.
“We are still expecting a dozen patients today who were sorted by an MSF team, which went to Cape Town yesterday. The team is made up of a surgeon specializing in burns, an anesthetist and a nurse, ”Ndong said.
Haiti, a poor Caribbean country, is in the throes of a severe fuel shortage due to gang stranglehold on part of the fueling circuit.
In recent months, armed gangs have greatly increased their hold over Port-au-Prince, controlling the roads leading to the country’s three oil terminals.
More than a dozen fuel transport vehicles were hijacked by gangs who demanded heavy ransoms for the release of the drivers, sparking strong discontent among the population.