Seventeen bell tolls echoed this Wednesday at the Enrique Estrada Fire Museum in Matanzas, one for each life lost in the Supertankers Base fire, on the fourth anniversary of the tragedy that shook Cuba in August 2022.
Relatives of the fallen, members of the fire department, representatives from the Ministry of the Interior, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and authorities from the Party and Government gathered at the memorial event, alongside citizens who refuse to let those who gave everything be forgotten.
After the bells, a minute of silence was observed and floral tributes were placed. Later, family and friends moved to the San Carlos Borromeo Cemetery, where the remains of the fallen rest.
«The volunteer forces of the fire department mobilized from the very beginning, many of them also sustained injuries as they did not hesitate to stay on the front lines, no matter how complex and dangerous the conditions were», recalled Ernesto Moreno Molina, vice president of the Volunteer Firefighters in the municipality of Matanzas.
“Four years after Supertanqueros, Matanzas does not forget those terrible days. Any tribute seems minimal compared to the sacrifice of such invaluable lives,” wrote the Periódico Girón while covering the commemorative events.
The day before, the Airport Fire Department Command 3 of Juan Gualberto Gómez International Airport in Varadero held its own tribute to the seven members of that unit who lost their lives in the tragedy.
The event included floral tributes in the History Room of Command 3 — created at the specific request of the families — and inaugurated new exhibits and donated items. TV Yumurí covered the tribute and published a video of the event.
The 17 deceased
The tragic death toll from the fire has been set at 17 victims. The first to be officially identified was Juan Carlos Santana Garrido, 60 years old, originally from Cienfuegos.
The young firefighter Elier Manuel Correa Aguilar, 24 years old, chief of the Airport Command, passed away days later due to severe burns.
The last to die was Omar Ravelo, a 63-year-old tanker truck driver, who passed away on October 2, 2022, at the Calixto García Hospital in Havana.
The 14 missing persons from the explosion of tank #51 have been identified as: Adriano Rodríguez Gutiérrez, Andy Mitchel Ramos Sotolongo, Areskys Quintero Orta, Diosdel Nazco Vargas, Fabián Naranjo Núñez, Leo Alejandro Doval Pérez de Prado, Luis Ángel Álvarez Leyva, Luis Raúl Aguilar Zamora, Michel Rodríguez Román, Osley Marante Guerra, Osmani Blasco Sosa, Pablo Ángel López Martell, Raciel Alonso Martínez, and Rolando Oviedo Sosa.
His remains could not be identified definitively: temperatures between 1,000 and 2,000 degrees Celsius destroyed fingerprints, dental records, and DNA.
Only 754 bone fragments grouped into 14 sets were recovered. Four of them were conscripts from the Mandatory Military Service aged between 19 and 20 years.
The tragedy
The fire started on the afternoon of August 5, 2022, when a lightning strike hit tank #52 of national crude oil in the industrial area of Matanzas, which was storing 26,200 cubic meters of fuel.
At five o'clock in the morning the next day, tank #51 exploded while firefighters and rescuers were working to prevent the spread.
That second explosion caused most of the casualties. The fire spread to four tanks and was declared extinguished on August 12, 2022.
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