Related videos:
A residence located at El Dandy S/N, Reparto Jiménez, behind the University of Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, experienced a fire this Monday around 12:20 pm, according to reported by Aris Arias Batalla, head of Operations and Relief at the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) in Santiago de Cuba and provincial vice president of the Firefighters Association on his social media.
According to local residents, there was no electricity in the area just before the incident.
"When the power was turned on, smoke started coming from the home a few minutes later," detailed Arias Batalla, suggesting a possible short circuit or electrical overload as the likely cause of the fire.
The owner was not at the property when the fire occurred.
Two neighbors opened the house and began to pour water before the firefighters arrived, in an action that may have reduced the extent of the damage.
Members of the Command 1 of the Cuban Fire Department proceeded with the complete extinguishing and cooling of the site, despite the area being described as difficult to access due to the irregularities of the road.
The images of the disaster show the interior of the house completely blackened, charred brick walls, a destroyed roof, and a burnt motorcycle inside.
"There were no injuries or fatalities to mourn, but there were material losses for the owner," reported Arias Batalla.
The incident reflects a documented pattern in Cuba: when electricity returns after hours or days of an outage, voltage spikes can overheat appliances that were left plugged in during the blackout, leading to short circuits.
In May 2026, a similar fire was reported in Havana that burned a house and an electric pole due to voltage surges when power was restored, and in May 2025, a deep fryer that was plugged in during a blackout in Santiago de Cuba overheated when the power returned and triggered another fire.
The accident occurs at the worst moment of the electrical crisis that Santiago de Cuba is experiencing. The provincial Electric Company admitted that in many cases it could not guarantee "even two hours of daily service," due to failures at the Renté thermoelectric plant.
Some neighborhoods have experienced power outages lasting up to 40 or 50 consecutive hours.
The despair over the lack of electricity has sparked a wave of protests in the city.
On June 5th, residents of Micro 2 held a pot-banging protest after more than ten days without electricity. On June 11th, residents of the José Martí District took to the streets demanding electricity, food, and freedom.
This Monday, residents of the San Ricardo neighborhood protested again due to several days without electricity service.
Also today, recovered transformers from Havana arrived in Santiago de Cuba to try to alleviate the issues in some neighborhoods, a measure that has yet to reverse the structural crisis that the Cuban regime has been facing for decades.
Filed under: