A fire was reported this Saturday in a house on Gasómetro Street, between 4th and 6th Streets, in the Mariana de la Torre neighborhood, Vista Hermosa, in Santiago de Cuba.
It was reported in real-time by independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada through his social media.
The images and video shared show a column of thick black smoke rising above a residential neighborhood of modest buildings, located in a hilly area, while several people watched the fire from the street, visibly distressed.
According to Mayeta, a house on a hill is reportedly being consumed by flames. Neighbors described the scene as alarming.
No injuries have been confirmed, nor are the causes of the incident known, the reporter stated.
What alarmed the neighbors the most was not just the fire, but the lack of response from the firefighters.
"The firefighters weren't answering the phone, everyone was calling, I'm here right now; if the fire isn't put out quickly, it's going to spread to the backyards of the houses on the staircase," wrote a resident who claimed to be at the scene at that moment.
Other internet users confirmed the situation: "No firefighters here," noted one. Another commented sarcastically, "Just now a firefighter passed by the ironworks; the hidden camera is up to date."
From various points in the city, residents reported seeing the smoke: "From my house, I can see the smoke, my God."
The reactions in the post reflected the collective despair. "Oh my God... Santiago is all fire and fighting... it's all chaos," wrote one internet user.
Others were limited to asking for mercy or exclaiming, "Troy is burning." Finally, one comment pointed out that the firefighters arrived on the scene after a delay: "The firefighters just got here."
The incident is not isolated. Santiago de Cuba has recorded at least six significant fires between February and April 2026, including one in April that destroyed the homes of two families and left five children homeless, and another that forced the evacuation of 12 patients from the Saturnino Lora Hospital after an air conditioning compressor failure.
In February, a large fire impacted building B-53 in the José Martí District, caused by waste burning.
In March, a motorbike exploded inside a house in the Sueño neighborhood.
The crisis of the fire service is a structural problem documented throughout the island. In Guantánamo, the firefighters responded to a fire but ran out of water, which prevented them from controlling the blaze in time.
In Havana, residents even resorted to deliberately setting trash bins on fire to attract firefighters and take advantage of the water from their tanker trucks, after going up to 35 days without supply.
The national electricity deficit, which reached between 1,630 and 1,945 MW in April 2026 with blackouts affecting 55% of the territory, further worsens the capacity to respond by paralyzing the water supply pumps.
This is compounded by the fact that the hurricane Melissa damaged over 106,500 homes in the province of Santiago de Cuba in October 2025, and only 17% had been repaired five months later, leaving thousands of families in precarious constructions highly vulnerable to fire.
At the time of writing this note, the fire at Gasómetro was still classified as a developing story.
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