The fire that broke out this Sunday in a fuel iso-tank of the Empresa de Azutecnia in Manzanillo, Granma province, was extinguished after hours of intense fighting, as confirmed by the state media CNC TV Granma on its social media.
The incident occurred while opening a container with fuel containers in the UEB Talleres y Desmonte, part of Azutecnia, an entity known as T22 and affiliated with the AZCUBA Sugar Group, dedicated to providing technical support to the sugar agro-industry in Granma.
Local sources indicated that a fuel pump inside the workshop could be linked to the origin of the incident, although that hypothesis has not been officially confirmed.
The balance of victims increased as the firefighting efforts progressed: initial reports indicated two injured individuals with minor burns, but the figure eventually rose to five people.
The most critical condition is presented by Hermes Soria Romero, 47 years old, who remains in critical condition with 31% burns.
Luis Roberto Tamayo Cedeño, 36 years old, is in serious condition with 16% of his body burned.
Pedro Manuel Depara Ramos (22 years old), Blas Sosa Vázquez (66 years old), and Ernesto Espinosa Leyva (59 years old) were discharged with medical follow-up.
The five injured individuals were transferred to the Celia Sánchez Manduley Provincial Hospital in Manzanillo.
Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in Granma, arrived at the site along with the highest political and government authorities of the province and municipality, including Reynier Beltrán Sánchez, María Isabel Sánchez, and Dunier Tamayo Casanova.
The party leader expressed special gratitude to the young firefighters from the Manzanillo Command and the Airport, to the Ministry of the Interior, to the Aqueduct, and to the well owners in the community who quickly supplied water to combat the flames.
The incident is part of a series of accidents related to fuel handling in Cuba during 2026. At the end of September, the Fire Department warned about the risks of storing fuel in plastic IBC containers, a practice widespread among private businesses amid the energy crisis the country is facing.
Specialists had identified violations such as the lack of grounding systems, insufficient retaining walls, and the combined storage of different fuels. In August 2026, one of them warned that some operators are attempting to store up to 30,000 liters in plastic tanks, a volume for which it is practically impossible to install adequate containment.
The most serious precedent in recent memory is the fire at the Supertanker Base in Matanzas in August 2022, which resulted in 17 deaths and more than 132 injuries, becoming one of the largest industrial disasters in Cuba in decades.
"The unity overcame what seemed endless. That must remain our main weapon to defend ourselves against anything that harms us," wrote Ortiz Barceló upon confirming the extinguishing of the disaster.
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