A Cuban family, comprised of a couple and their son, lost all their belongings when a fierce fire broke out on Wednesday in the house where they lived in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay.
"I didn't have anything left," confessed the Cuban Lexis Molino, in statements to Telemundo (Teledoce). "(...) The phone and because I had it at hand at that moment. Everything was lost. Money, everything."
“We were able to get out on time... but we lost all our belongings, I couldn't rescue the passports. We were planning to move soon and had withdrawn the money from the cards,” he pointed out.
"Leaving Cuba to move forward and...losing everything at once," lamented the Cuban, who, along with his family, has been living in Uruguay for a year and eight months, between sobs.
The fire broke out in a two-story house located at Doctor José Scosería and Pedro Francisco Berro, in the Pocitos neighborhood in the southern area of the Uruguayan capital, and three people, including Molino, were intoxicated. They were assisted by medical staff, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
On the second floor of the house lived the three Cubans, as well as two Venezuelan men, while on the ground floor there is a storage room for cleaning supplies, local media reported.
Molino, who works as a delivery driver, and his wife, who works as an escort at night, took their son to school around 8:00 in the morning and, upon returning home, lay down to rest for a while until the fire forced them to leave.
Around 10:20, I heard a loud noise, we woke up and when I looked out, I saw someone throwing something in the trash, I thought it had been that," he recounted. "I realized that the air outside was different. I decided to go out into the hallway to see how it was, and when I saw, all the smoke was already inside and I had to grab my wife and figure out how to get to the rooftop."
"We were able to get out on time, my wife is doing quite well," he said. "The fire was downstairs. I grabbed my wife and we jumped through the next building."
The Cubans had been living in the building where the fire occurred for a year, which apparently originated in the old cleaning products storage room located on the ground floor of the building. The firefighters were alerted to the fire after 10 in the morning.
Regarding the possible causes of the accident, Molino considered that "maybe it was a cut [short circuit] or something. I don't think it was intentional."
Uruguayan media provided a telephone number (094545887) that people who wish to collaborate with the victims can call or write to.
In July 2023, a fire broke out in the home where Cuban brothers Eduardo and Bryan Cruz Pérez, aged 21 and 23, were living, claiming their lives in the city of Pando, in the metropolitan area of Montevideo.
At the beginning of 2022, Cuban Juan Carlos Rangel, who has been living in Uruguay since 2018, lost everything he had in a fire at his home in Libertad, a city in the department of San José, but received support from his neighbors to move forward.
A large community of Cubans currently resides in Uruguay, thousands of whom are seeking to resolve their migration status after the government signed a decree in mid-June to grant them legal status.
The measure benefited around 20,000 people, mostly Cubans, who are staying irregularly in the South American country.
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