A fire caused by the explosion of a gasoline isotank at the T-22 Workshop of the Azutecnia Company, in Manzanillo, Granma province, left five people injured this Sunday, one of whom is in critical condition, according to the first secretary of the Communist Party in the province who reported it via social media.
The initial preliminary reports only mentioned two individuals with minor burns and no risk to life, but the number was subsequently revised upward as firefighting efforts progressed: one person was in critical condition, two in serious condition, and two in stable condition. The five injured were transferred to the Provincial Hospital Celia Sánchez Manduley.
Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, the first secretary of the Party in Granma, arrived at the scene along with the highest political and government authorities of the province and the municipality. From the site of the incident, the leader described the scale of the response operation: "The Fire Brigade, community members, and staff from the institution are working tirelessly to extinguish the fire."
Ortiz Barceló also specified the toll of victims in his publications: "As a result, five people were injured, one in critical condition, two serious, and two requiring care." He added: "We will be here until the fire has ceased and no more lives are at risk."
Local sources indicated that a fuel pump inside the workshop could be related to the origin of the incident, although this hypothesis had not been officially confirmed at the time of the reports.
The T-22 Workshop belongs to Azutecnia, the Exporting Company of the Sugar Agroindustry of Cuba, linked to the AZCUBA Sugar Group. The facility has historically been dedicated to the repair and recovery of equipment and machinery for the sugar industry in Granma, a sector that is experiencing significant contraction throughout the island.
The incident adds to a series of accidents related to fuel handling in Cuba. At the end of September, a fire during gas repair work in Havana left six workers injured on Tulipán Street, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality.
Days later, the Fire Department publicly warned about the risk of storing or selling fuel in IBC plastic containers of approximately 1,000 liters, recommending the use of approved metal containers.
The most serious incident in recent memory is the fire at the Supertankers Base in Matanzas in August 2022, which resulted in 17 fatalities and nearly 150 injuries following a lightning strike on an oil tank, and it became one of the largest industrial disasters in Cuba in decades.
The authorities indicated that information about the incident in Manzanillo would be updated as new details emerge regarding the condition of the injured and the final control of the fire.
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