Havana, August 19 (RHC)-- Cuba pays tribute this Friday to those who died in the confrontation of the fire of massive proportions in the Industrial Zone of the western city of Matanzas.

At the Firefighters Museum of that city, the population will express during the day its respect and gratitude for the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the attempt to quell the deflagration caused by a lightning strike on an oil tank of the Supertanker Base on August 5.

At 18:00 hours, the funeral procession will proceed to the Pantheon of the Fallen for the Defense, in the Matanzas cemetery, where a private burial ceremony will occur.

As a result of intense search efforts, Cuban experts were able to find 14 groups of skeletal remains, corresponding to the number of missing persons reported after the incident, but the high temperatures and the time of exposure to the flames made it impossible to identify those fragments fully.

Those missing in the deflagration are the soldiers from Matanzas Adriano Rodríguez, Fabián Naranjo and Leo Alejandro Doval, and from Mayabeque, Michel Rodríguez; the first non-commissioned officer from Matanzas Diosdel Nazco; the captain from Mayabeque, Areskys Quintero, and the first lieutenant from Havana, Andy Mitchel Ramos.

Also Luis Angel Alvarez and Pablo Angel Lopez, from Matanzas; Osmany Blasco and Rolando Oviedo, from Mayabeque; as well as Raciel Alonso Martinez, Luis Raul Aguilar and Osley Marante, from Havana.

They were joined by the first water tank operator Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, from the Camilo Cienfuegos Oil Refinery Fire Department, and officer Elier Manuel Correa Aguilar, head of the professional fire truck at the Matanzas Airport Command.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel decreed two days of official mourning, starting at 6:00 a.m. Thursday until midnight Friday, in tribute to the victims of the country's most significant catastrophe of its kind.