A video is circulating on social media showing the raging fire that killed seven peopletwo of them children, in the early morning of June 28, after being trapped by the flames derived from the explosion of two motorcycles.
In the images, which last just under a minute, the dialogue between several neighbors surprised by the magnitude of the fire is heard.
“Rogelio, has anyone in the family gone out?”is heard asking who is filming the images, to which the aforementioned responds with a “no”, while stating that the only possibility for them to be saved is that they go into the courtyard. However, both conclude that in that case the smoke can suffocate them.
“What ball with the firefighters?”, immediately asks who is recording; to which a woman replies: “I already called them and they didn’t pick up the phone.”
In the forums where until now the images have been published, Hundreds of comments mainly attack the neighbors and the passivity they show in an extreme situation, in which apparently no one chose to join forces and try to throw buckets of water or break the door.
“What kind of insensitive people who, far from providing help, are dedicated to filming the disaster!”; “My God, and they filmed that instead of breaking down the door, what a barbarity!”; “The people standing around watching and recording without doing nor the attempt to save those people, what we Cubans have become,” are some of the comments that harshly criticize the victims’ neighbors.
“Recording and how calm! I don’t hear screams calling the neighbors to help when in Havana the streets are always full of people. Perhaps they were not going to be saved, but to watch and wait, very hard, very cruel and very painful,” someone sentenced.
Others point out that even if the neighbors had tried to do something, the fires caused by the explosion of motorinas are “very difficult to put out”.
However, not a few emphasize that they should have at least tried something and not wait passively for the arrival of the firefighters, something that they did, at least the video does not show it. However, it must be taken into account that the fire broke out after two in the morning, something that explains why there were few people on the street.
“That is not extinguished with buckets…it is extinguished with the public service of the fire brigade, which is paid for with the taxes of the people”pointed out a commentator who charged the responsibility for what happened to the alleged slowness of the firefighters, something that has not been confirmed.
It was early in the morning of June 28 that the Government of Havana published the first notes on the tragedy. The provincial authority stated that the incident originated in a “mixed construction housing, with masonry and wood structures inside”and said that everything seemed to indicate that the fire started from the explosion of two motors that were being charged in the living room of the house.
Given the magnitude of the fire, joint forces of the Ministerio del Interior (MININT)the police and the Cuban Fire Department with endowments from various municipalities, as well as the Rescue and Rescue Detachment, in addition to various authorities in the province.
In the house lived Magalys Leonwho worked as economic manager of ARTEX Cultural Centers and their adult children -a female and a male– with their respective partners. The two deceased minors, Kevin Bernal López (4 years old) and Carolina Bernal López (6) They were children of one of the couples.
After the fatal house fire, located at 159 Perseverancia Street, between Ánimas and Virtudes, the authorities cordoned off the area and proceeded to shore up the house.
The day after the tragedy, friends and relatives of the deceased they said their last goodbye to the mortal remains of the family in the Colon Cemetery.
In recent years, the explosion of electric motorcycles has become one of the main causes of fire in the country, causing not only significant material losses to the victims, but also the loss of human lives. However, the fire in Central Havana on June 28 was the deadliest for this cause that has been reported to date in Cuba.
