New mode of public transportation in Cuba: the infamous “camellos” (camels). March 31, 2000. Photo by Mercedes Diez, North Hollywood, California

#405 Havana Street, as it looks today, October 2000. Photo by Sergio del Olmo, Miami, Florida

Firemen’s Negligence Contribute
to the Spread of a Fire

By José Izquierdo, Grupo Decoro (Decorum Group)

Güines, December 11, 2002 (www.cubanet.org) - Güines’ firemen arrived without water in two truck-tanks to a house where a fire had started on December 6 around two o’clock in the afternoon, causing the fire to spread to two other dwellings.

“I don’t understand how two truck-tanks can remain parked without being filled with water. If the sinister was not bigger today is because other municipal entities helped with their ‘pipas’ (popular name in Cuba to designate the truck-tanks),” a young man who was doing cleaning work said, after the fire was extinguished.

The fire raged for three hours and destroyed all furniture of three affected families. Now the victims sleep in relatives or neighbors' homes, because up to now, the Municipal Government has not helped them at all.

The disaster started when the owner of a dwelling located on 76th. Street between 57 and 59, in this locality of Havana Province, lighted a candle on top of a wooden wardrobe. When the candle ended, the furniture ignited and the flames spread very fast throughout the house.

Several residents in the area confirmed the fact that the magnitude and propagation of the fire was mainly due to the negligence of the firemen when they arrived at the location of the fire without water in their vehicles.

Those sources also stated that the sinister would have been bigger but for the fast intervention of several truck-tanks of other state organisms, as well as firemen from San José de las Lajas and San Nicolás de Bari, towns close to Güines, that arrived at the place with their equipment ready to fight the flames.