Local firefighters assisted by their French counterparts as well as other Ivoirian services looked set on Tuesday to win a five-day battle against a fire at a major fuel depot located in the Vridi industrial zone here. A senior official of the Energy Ministry told IRIN on Tuesday that the firefighting team "is attacking the fire for the last time" and that top officials of the ministry had gone to the scene of the fire at the Gestion
des Stocks petrolieres de Cote d'Ivoire' (GESTOCI).
Oil companies, the port authorities, ASECNA - the Ivoirian aviation security service - the police, gendarmes and CIAPOL (Ivoirian anti-pollution centre) participated along with the firemen in the effort to combat the fire, the source said.
There was no longer any risk of the fire spreading to an adjoining oil refinery, the Societe ivoirienne de raffinage (SIR), he said.
[See separate item issued earlier today by IRIN West Africa]
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