Fire fighters could not get close to the fire due to the high temperatures and the thick smoke.

The countries of Mexico and Venezuela aided Cuba during the event by sending 100 firefighters, firefighting equipment, and two fireboats from both countries. Venezuela sent 85 volunteers and 20 tons of foam and chemicals. China sent aid with rescue and recovery operations.

During the weekend, firefighters sprayed water on the remaining 10 fuel tanks to keep them cool and prevent the spread of the fire. Local officials warned residents to wear facemasks and stay indoors to avoid the sulfur dioxide smoke. The smoke also contained nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and other poisonous substances with the risk of acid rain. Five days after the fire started, the fires had been mostly brought under control with grey smoke mostly replacing the original black plumes.

A dark smoke plume, visible on satellite shots, reached Havana and further west, prompting health authorities to urge people to stay indoors.

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It resulted in the death of 17 firefighters, including young people who were undergoing compulsory military service, and injured from 80 to 125 other people. Most injuries happened during the second explosion on Saturday, 6 August, and concern burn wounds and smoke inhalation.

Local officials warned residents to wear facemasks and stay indoors to avoid the sulfur dioxide smoke. The smoke also contained nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and other poisonous substances with the risk of acid rain.

- Black smoke from the fire spread up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) towards Cuba's capital city of Havana.
- Meteorologists predicted toxic rain.
- Officials reported that no oil was spilled into Matanzas Bay.
- A small fire in a wooded area feeding off oil leaking from the terminal was reported to have been extinguished.

- The blaze lasted almost a week, destroyed 40% of Cuba’s main fuel depot and shuttered its only supertanker port, which aggravated the energy crisis in the island.
- Fuel and oil shipping operations at the Port of Matanzas weresuspended; tankers and domestic fuel barges were being re-routed to Havana Bay and Cienfuegos.
- Of the eight storage tanks, four were destroyed or unusable. The remaining four storage tanks, while intact, may have been compromised by the heat, according to experts.

- The explosion forced the evacuation of 4,900 people from the city, shut the local thermal power station, and sparked fears of an energy crisis in the country.

- The nearby Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant — Cuba’s largest located about 3 km from the fire— was turned off mid-day Aug. 8; the Energy Ministry said it was due to lack of cooling water. It restarted on the morning of Aug. 9, but was taken offline again Aug. 10.

- State electric utility UNE has since announced daily power generation gaps between 800 and 1,200 megawatts, with extended blackouts.

- Armed forces helicopters were cooling the facility by dousing it with water from Matanzas Bay.
- On Sunday, 7 August, 82 Mexican and 35 Venezuelan personnel experienced in fighting fuel fires joined the effort, bringing four planeloads of fire-fighting chemicals.
-Military construction specialists have been erecting barriers to contain oil spills.

The reconstruction works to the industrial facility, which had already started on April 2023 and expected to last for 16 months, include:

1. New deposits with more security measures:
- the diameter of the tanks will be less than that destroyed;
-tanks equipped with an underground electrical system.

2. The distance between the new deposits will be 110 meters, almost four times more than before.

3. The size of the containment dike would be greater than the capacity of the tank (i.e., in the event of a spill, all the crude remains concentrated in the containment dike).

4. The containment dike is assembled with earth covered with concrete - quality that prevents the collapse of that structure in the event of fire.

5. The base will have more powerful foam cannons and a new position for firefighters in case of emergency, established at a greater distance from the container.

- The short (low safety) distance between the tanks could have been one of the factors in the seriousness of the incident.
- Foam can only be applied to extinguish the fire once the temperatures have been cooled down.

- Cuba did not have the means to control a fire of such magnitude, neither in terms of manpower nor in the availability of technical means.
- Cuba’s fire fighters were not trained for situations of this type. Among the 17 fire fighters that lost their lives were young men who were completing their compulsory military service.

- The cooling capacity seemed insufficient to avoid a domino effect considering the heat created by the fire, the strong wind and height of the flames, the relatively low safety distances between the tanks, and the fact that fire fighters could not get close to the fire due to the high temperatures and the thick smoke.
- It seemed likely that the blaze could not be extinguished and the fire was left to burn itself out until all the fuel was consumed while trying to prevent any further exacerbation of the accident.