Free Republic

Cuba’s government declared the “elimination” on Friday of a fire at a major fuel storage plant that left two firefighters dead and 14 people missing. The presidency said on Twitter that “at 7.00am, the elimination of the fire was declared”. After the fire was extinguished, 60 experts entered the disaster zone to recover the remains of those still missing. “Forensic medical teams have been working since early in the morning to search for the remains of the missing persons,” the president’s office said. Remains of the missing have been “located in different places” in the devastated area, one of the...

The Cuban government said it has accepted “technical guidance” offered by the Unites States to help the island’s authorities put out a raging fire that threatens to engulf an oil storage facility at the port of Matanzas, in what could be one of the few examples of cooperation between the two countries in recent years. “We deeply appreciate the condolences and expressions of help from people and organizations in the U.S. regarding the #Matanzas incident, including from the U.S. government, which offered technical advice, a proposal already in the hands of specialists for proper coordination,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s...

South of St.Augustine. It was a grey day, the shore birds were all hunkered down on the shell bars, waiting for some Sunshine.