At least two cars were completely burned this Sunday following a fire in the parking lot of the 12-story building located on 3rd street in Vedado, at the rear of the Meliá Cohiba hotel, in Havana, according to images and a video shared on social media.
The photographs show intense orange flames and a thick column of black smoke rising over the residential area, typical of the combustion of synthetic materials and rubber.
An image taken from the heights of the building itself shows the arrival of a fire truck at the scene, while numerous onlookers watched from a safe distance.
According to the report, those who witnessed the incident limited themselves to filming it without intervening. The author of the video that circulated on social media commented wryly, "I'm fine, I don't have a car."
No victims were reported, and as is often the case in these situations, the official cause remains unknown. "Details about what caused the fire are not known," the Facebook user specified in their post.
The incident adds to a long series of documented vehicle fires in Havana since 2022, a phenomenon that has alarmingly become recurrent on the island.
One of the most widely held hypotheses among citizens and observers points directly to the poor quality of the fuel distributed by the Cuban state. According to experts who have commented on previous cases online, "the gasoline is lacking a certain substance, which results in it not having the proper octane level, causing greater heating and igniting."
This theory gained traction in April 2022, when three Lada vehicles caught fire simultaneously and users on social media attributed it directly to the fuel dispensed at Cuban gas stations.
Recent incidents are numerous: a Mercedes Vaneo caught fire in Old Havana on September 16, 2023, a Mercedes-Benz ignited on Boyeros Avenue on March 6, 2024, and a Lada burned near Puentes Grandes on October 20, 2023.
The structural context exacerbates the risk: Cuba produces only about 30,000 barrels per day compared to a demand of 150,000, and external supplies are insufficient and sporadic.
This is compounded by the aging of the vehicle fleet, the lack of spare parts, the widespread absence of fire extinguishers, and delays of up to an hour in the response from firefighters.
The phenomenon is not exclusive to Cuba. In Venezuela, a country that also distributes adulterated fuel or fuel lacking essential additives, Civil Protection of Carabobo recorded more than 1,000 vehicles set on fire between 2021 and 2022 attributed to this cause.
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