The breakdown caused a steam turbine in block seven of the facility to catch fire on Monday, triggering the automatic shutdown of the system, Eliezer Machado Urra, a senior expert in Occupational Health and Safety, told the Cuban News Agency. The incident did not cause human losses, due to the actions taken by personnel working at the plant in the evacuation, the activation of the health emergency system, and the preparation of the Mariel polyclinic to attend to any emergencies.

He added that the participation of firefighters from the region, the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) and several municipalities in Artemisa province was vital.

Machado Urra stressed that the thermoelectric plant is rigorous in complying with safety measures and in exercises to deal with situations such as the one experienced on Monday night.

He pointed out that thermal generation and block seven are out of service, the magnitude of the damage is being assessed, a technical review of blocks five and six is being performed, and block eight is undergoing maintenance.

However, the plant maintains its supplies to national power system through the mobile battery of fuel engines and the solar panels linked to the ZEDM.

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