PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 14 (Askume) – A fuel truck exploded on a road on Haiti’s southern peninsula on Saturday, killing at least 25 people and leaving dozens with serious burns, local media reported.
Haitian Prime Minister Gary Cornier visited the crash site near the coastal town of Miraguan in the Nippes department and said some seriously injured victims were evacuated by helicopter for medical treatment.
“This is a horrific scene I have just witnessed,” he said in a statement. He said emergency teams were working to “save the lives of the seriously injured” and promised government aid for victims and their families.
Media radio RFM said 25 people were killed in the incident, which occurred around 7 am local time. Earlier, Nips officials said 16 bodies were completely burned and unrecognizable and 40 people were taken to local hospitals with burn injuries.
Images released by the government showed paramedics helping a man wearing white bandages on his legs and head as he entered a Humanitarian Air Service helicopter.
Eyewitnesses to the incident said the fuel tank of the truck was punctured by another vehicle and people rushed to the spot to collect the fuel.
“There were a lot of people there. Those who were close to the truck were crushed,” the unnamed man said in a video interview with local outlet Echo Haiti Media.
When asked how many people might have died in the blast, he said it was difficult to say.
“You couldn’t know because there were so many people there, spectators and people collecting oil. There were so many people,” he said.
Fuel deliveries to the Miragoana region have slowed in recent weeks as trucks are transported by ferry to avoid gang-controlled highways around the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The proliferation of gangs in and around the capital has exacerbated a humanitarian crisis, leading to mass displacement, sexual violence, child recruitment and widespread starvation. There is currently a state of emergency across the country.
Haiti’s civil protection agency reported the identities of a 31-year-old man and two 23-year-old men with burns over 89 percent of their bodies who were being treated at a hospital in Les Cayes in southern Haiti.
Two of them suffered second-degree burns, the agency said.
In 2021, a similar incident occurred in the city of Cap-Haïtien, killing at least 60 people , and it was believed that people were still trying to drain oil from a tanker truck.
