Fire Spreads at Port Santos, Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 4 (Reuters) – A hearth at a gasoline storage facility run by Ultracargo close to Santos, Brazil’s largest port, unfold additional on Saturday because it entered its third day regardless of firefighters’ efforts to comprise the flames.

The fireplace unfold to a close-by tank crammed with gasoline, in response to a press release from Ultracargo, which is owned by Grupo Ultra. There had been no casualties, it stated.

Six tanks have been hit to this point and 4 of them had been nonetheless burning.

Explosions had been heard on the facility on Thursday morning, swiftly turning right into a blaze that despatched a thick column of black smoke into the air. Environmental authorities had been monitoring the air high quality in close by cities affected by the smoke.

Firefighters stated there was little they may do to extinguish the flames earlier than all of the gasoline was consumed. Instead, they centered on dousing close by tanks to maintain the fireplace from spreading.

“The battle is very difficult,” they stated on their official Twitter account.

Two different tanks are close to these presently affected – one is empty and the opposite crammed with ethanol, Ultracargo stated.

Traffic was diverted across the website of the blaze, blocking one of many roads to the port. Trucks carrying soybeans and different commodities had been nonetheless in a position to entry the port by way of a second entrance, a spokeswoman for the native CET visitors engineering firm stated on Friday. (Reporting by Walter Brandimarte; modifying by Andrew Roche and Gunna Dickson)