A Cuban grandfather went viral on TikTok after building a handmade stove using an empty bullet shell, a fire extinguisher, and soil, due to the impossibility of affording liquefied gas, which costs over 30,000 Cuban pesos in the informal market.
The video posted by the account @laurenlotti5 this Monday shows the creator explaining the clever design while her grandfather constructs it: "Gas in Cuba costs more than thirty thousand pesos, so my grandfather, using a small gas canister, a fire extinguisher, and dirt, made a stove that looks like gas."
The device utilizes air intake through lateral openings that rises through the center of the cylinder, achieving efficient combustion in about a minute.
"The air comes in here, here, and it rises from here. It's designed to work with charcoal and finely chopped firewood. It utilizes the air in such a perfect way that in just one minute it has an incredible force," the young woman explains in the recording.
The earth is used as an insulating material to protect the metal components, and the result, according to the author, is a stove that "looks like a torch."
The protagonist grandfather is no stranger on social media: the same account previously introduced him making a homemade antenna with a can to boost the internet signal, which earned him the nickname "super grandpa" among his followers.
The crisis that necessitates these solutions is profound. In January 2026, CUPET indefinitely suspended the distribution of liquefied gas in Santiago de Cuba and the rest of the eastern provinces due to a lack of supply.
In the informal market, the price of a canister fluctuated between 10,000 and 50,000 pesos depending on the area, and in May 2026 cooking in Cuba reached the cost of dollars: 10 kg cylinders were offered at 29 dollars in Havana, equivalent to about 15,660 pesos at the informal exchange rate.
This invention adds to a long list of improvised solutions documented on the island during the crisis: sawdust stoves made from metal cans in November 2025, rice cookers converted into charcoal stoves in Cienfuegos, and the return of the 80s style "rocket" wood stoves due to power outages lasting up to 24 hours.
The Cuban government itself has begun to promote the use of charcoal briquettes in Sancti Spíritus as an "ecological" alternative, evoking memories of the Special Period of the 1990s.
The reaction on social media was one of amazement and admiration. The creator of the video concluded with a phrase that captures the sentiment of many: "I hope this little video helps many people around the world. Cuban ingenuity knows no limits."
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