Nine-month-old baby suffers burns while family was cooking with charcoal in Santiago de Cuba

A nine-month-old baby suffered significant injuries this Saturday on Vargas Street, between San Antonio and San Ricardo, in downtown Santiago de Cuba, while his family was cooking with charcoal during one of the prolonged blackouts affecting the province.

According to accounts gathered by the independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada among local residents, sparks from the rustic stove reached the chair where the child was sitting.

The adults did not notice right away, and by the time they reacted, the child already had significant injuries. The child’s grandfather intervened to extinguish the fire.

The baby was initially transferred to the Southern Children’s Hospital La Colonia Española. According to unofficial reports, he was later referred to the Burn Unit of the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Surgical Hospital.

At the close of this publication, their health status had not been confirmed by official channels.

In another post, Mayeta also reported an alarming situation: the hospital was lacking medical supplies, and families were being pressured not to disclose the matter.

"I urge you to contact the father, there is nothing at the hospital and the pressure that the family is receiving to not disclose anything about the incident is overwhelming. It’s just a nine-month-old baby," wrote Mayeta Labrada in a subsequent post, where she also shared the father's number so that the community could provide support.

This pattern of institutional silence regarding domestic accidents linked to the energy crisis had already been documented in Santiago de Cuba.

In May, officials from the Rescue and Salvage Corps publicly stated that there were no injuries in a fire that did leave an elderly woman with serious burns, who was also transferred to the Burn Unit of Juan Bruno Zayas.

The accident occurs in the context of the worst energy crisis Cuba has experienced in decades. Blackouts in Havana last between 20 and 22 hours daily, and can reach up to 45 consecutive hours in provinces in the east.

Due to the inability to cook with electricity or gas, the government of President Miguel Díaz-Canel instructed in March to ensure cooking materials "from charcoal to firewood" as an official guideline, thus shifting the risk directly onto families.

Citizen despair over this situation is reflected in the testimonies circulating on social media. "It's hours and hours of blackouts, heat, mosquitoes, desperation, desperation, that we can't take it anymore," expressed a Cuban on Facebook this past Saturday.

Another woman, showing her soot-blackened hands, summed up the reality of millions: "Well, nothing, my loves, the coal does its job, here I am sitting, waiting for them to cook."

Santiago de Cuba has recorded at least six significant fires between February and May, several of which are directly linked to the use of alternative cooking methods during power outages.

The structural paradox is that a Cuban company exported over 150 tons of charcoal to Europe in the first quarter of 2026, while more than nine million Cubans rely on that same fuel for cooking.