MIAMI, United States. – Soldier Raúl Ramírez Leyva, one of those in charge of answering calls from the population to 105 (Firefighters), was the one who received the first notice of the fire that started at the Matanzas Supertanker Base last Friday, August 5, according to a report from the official newspaper Granma.
“I was the one who got the call. Cupet’s office tells me about the lightning strike: ‘We have an emergency situation here, smoke and a certain flare can be seen in the tanks up there, and even when it’s raining it doesn’t go out,’” said the young man.
“I acted quickly, I called the Super Tanker Command, I informed the chief of the guard about the situation and they went there. Then my headquarters called me and I quickly released all the techniques here from Command 1.”
“Our first notice car was for a service in the city, and from there I sent it to the place. I kept in communication with all the staff,” he also recounted.
“I had an idea of the magnitude of what was happening. Of the 23 months that I have been in the Military Service, I spent 15 in the Special Commando de Supertanqueros, and I knew they were there. Imagine, they are my companions ”, he said about his initial concern, when there was still no clear news of the disaster.
The young soldier works as an assistant guard officer in the Fire Command No. 1 of Matanzas, where he is in charge of answering the calls that from all the municipalities request the intervention of the firefighters.
In accordance with Granma, people also call asking if there is any news about the missing firefighters in the fire. “Order, no, no, we still don’t know anything,” Raúl replies.
Last Monday, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in the province of Matanzas, Susely Morfa, lowered to 14 the number of missing persons due to the large-scale fire that affected the Supertanker Base of the Matanzas industrial hub.
“At the beginning there were 17 disappeared. After the explosion, a search began and two people appeared in hospitals and finally it is reported that there are 14 missing, said the official in statements quoted by the state newspaper Giron.
Morfa did not specify the identity of the two people previously reported missing, nor did he say where they were or in what condition.
On the other hand, the young men Leo Alejandro Doval, Adriano Rodríguez and Fabián Naranjo, who were completing Active Military Service (mandatory) have been reported by their relatives as missing in the Matanzas incident.
The three were transferred to the Super Tanker Base to try to put out the fire and were in the first line of fire on August 5 when the explosions occurred.
Although there is no official public information on the status of these young people, or the rest of the disappeared, relatives and friends of the boys have posted messages of condolences on social networks.
The Cuban government, five days after the start of the fire, has refused to expose the identity of the disappeared and their ages.
Although the Cuban State does not disclose information in this regard, reports of deaths during Active Military Service (SMA) are systematic. At the end of July CubaNet published an incipient database where the deaths of young people while complying with the SMA are recorded.
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