A desperate scream in the middle of the night triggered a chain of solidarity that saved four lives in Cuba. According to a post published on Facebook by Aroldo García Fombellida, a pro-government journalist from Radio Rebelde in Holguín, at 3:20 AM this Wednesday, he heard the cries of his closest neighbor, Rafelito Fonseca, whose home —located on the ground floor of the same building— was engulfed in flames.
"To wake up startled at three twenty in the morning, upon hearing a voice calling out... 'Help, help, help'... is no small matter", wrote the journalist.
Inside the house were Fonseca, his wife Annia, Gladys —her mother, who was nearly a hundred years old— and the young grandson Alex. Rafelito's motorcycle was burning in the living room, and the flames were already reaching the kitchen, while the four of them remained trapped in the rooms, surrounded by fire and thick smoke that hindered visibility.
Fonseca's screams reached the nearest neighbors, and the cry for help multiplied within seconds. While someone called the fire department, others rushed in with whatever tools they could find.
Several neighbors attacked the bars and windows with hammers, and that way they managed to get people out, including the little dog Firulay, García Fombellida recounted. Other residents, armed with a pickaxe and an axe, forced open the main door of the house.
With the occupants already evacuated, the neighbors formed a chain to pass buckets of water, although the fire did not subside until two fire trucks arrived, which finally extinguished the blaze. No victims or injuries were reported.
The material losses, on the other hand, were almost total. “Materially, little, almost nothing, could be saved,” wrote the journalist. Among the destroyed items, he mentioned one detail that was especially painful: Alex's school uniform, which was ready in the room for the next day's school day, “succumbed to the flames.”
Hours after the fire, several neighbors remained at the site supporting the family. "We went through very sad moments this morning, but the efforts of all the neighbors prevented any loss of life. Our building is a family," wrote one of those present.
Another neighbor summed up what happened with a phrase that captures the essence of the story: "What sad news, it's a family that loses everything, but the solidarity of the neighbors did not lose a human life, which is the most important thing."
The fire occurs in a context of increasing incidents linked to electric motorcycles in Cuban homes, vehicles that have become widespread due to the fuel crisis but pose a serious risk when stored or charged inside households. The most tragic recent case occurred in Camagüey on July 30, 2025, when the explosion of motorcycle batteries resulted in at least four fatalities. In Colón, Matanzas, at the end of April this year, neighbors and firefighters rescued two individuals —an elderly man and an 85-year-old bedridden woman— under similar circumstances.
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