The fire that broke out this Sunday in a fuel isotank of the Empresa de Azutecnia in Manzanillo, Granma province, was extinguished after hours of intense battling, as confirmed by the government-aligned CNC TV Granma on their social media.
The incident occurred when opening a container with fuel containers at the UEB Talleres y Desmonte, belonging to 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 cause of the incident, although that hypothesis has not been officially confirmed.
The victim count increased as the firefighting efforts progressed: initial reports indicated two individuals with minor burns, but the number ultimately rose to five people.
The most critical condition is that of 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 location along with the top 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 Water Supply, and to the well owners in the community who quickly provided 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 IBC plastic containers, a common practice among private businesses amid the ongoing energy crisis in the country.
Specialists had identified violations such as the absence of grounding systems, inadequate retaining walls, and the joint storage of different fuels. In August 2026, one of them warned that some operators were 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 fatalities and over 132 injuries, becoming one of the largest industrial disasters in Cuba in decades.
"The unity overcame what seemed endless. That must continue to be our primary weapon to defend ourselves against everything that hurts us," wrote Ortiz Barceló upon confirming the extinguishing of the fire.
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