A fire at the electrical substation Alquízar Kv 4000 left about 1,800 customers—nearly 7,000 people—without electricity this Saturday in the popular councils of Mayorquín Sur and Pulido Guanímar, in the province of Artemisa, according to reports from the provincial press of Artemisa on Facebook.
Three fire departments responded to the emergency call: Command 9 from Alquízar, 6 from San Antonio de los Baños, and 10 from Güira de Melena quickly arrived on the scene to extinguish the flames.
Authorities indicated that there were no collateral damages or human casualties, and that the impacts were confined to the substation itself.
The causes of the incident are under investigation, and no additional information has been provided so far regarding the origin of the fire.
The incident adds to a history of serious failures in the electrical infrastructure of Artemisa. In August 2025, an explosion at the 4,000 substation in Güira de Melena —a neighboring municipality of Alquízar— left approximately 4,600 customers without power. Previously, in June 2024, a large fire at the Zayas substation affected four municipalities in the same province.
The Alquízar substation had also been identified by the Electric Company of Artemisa as one of the facilities affected by thefts of dielectric oil, a practice that has spread throughout Cuba. In February 2026, the theft of 70 liters of this oil at a substation in Cayajabos left around 4,000 people without electricity; the perpetrator was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sabotage in May 2026.
The fire this Saturday occurs at the worst moment of the Cuban electrical crisis in decades. The generation deficit reached a historic record of 2,341 MW on July 10, with a mere availability of 990 MW against a demand of 3,200 MW.
Cuba has experienced five total blackouts in the National Electric System so far in 2026, with power outages averaging between 20 and 24 hours daily in many areas of the country, and some communities enduring over 72 consecutive hours without electricity.
Fires at substations have become a recurring phenomenon in this context of infrastructural collapse. In April 2025, a fire at the Tallapiedra substation caused power outages in areas of Havana, and in June 2026, a fire at the Caibarién substation in Villa Clara was extinguished, affecting 15 local districts.
Cuba has experienced 10 total blackouts of the national electrical system in the last 24 months, reflecting the structural collapse of a grid that the regime has been unable to sustain after decades of neglect and insufficient investment.
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