By AP
CAIRO: One person died and 24 were injured in Suez during a fire that raged for nearly 20 hours in the storage facilities of an oil company, local police chief Adel Refaat said.
Bashir Saad Bashir, 32, was driving a fire truck to help with putting out the fire when he was caught in the blaze. Firefighters backed by army helicopters failed to put out the flames, but they eventually died out, apparently because the oil was fully consumed.
Investigation is under way to determine the cause of the fire, which according to company officials burned up about 10,000 tons of crude oil, or 20 percent of the company’s capacity.
Most of the company’s output is for export. Egypt has been hit by recurrent fuel shortages, which government officials blame on hoarding subsidized fuel. But many blame the government’s mismanagement for the crisis.
A company official, Hani Dahi, told the official state news agency MENA that the fire won’t impact the local market because most of the destroyed oil was intended for export.
This is the second fire in an oil company in Suez since February. Bashir is the brother of one of four workers who died in the February fire, the police chief said.
