Firefighters tackled the fire at the Girón del Vedado building

Photo: Alberto Arego, Cuban journalist.

A fire broke out this Saturday at the well-known Giron building located at Malecon and F in Vedado, controlled by the Havana Fire Department. By mid-afternoon, though most of the flames were under control, spots lingered.

According to the Plaza de la Revolución Administration Council, the fire broke out “on the 5th floor patio,” but, at the time of writing, the cause of the fire was unknown. There are 132 apartments under construction, housing 600 people.

In the pictures shared by the profile Cuban firefighters Vehicles of different commands were seen around the 17-storey building, whose construction dates back to 1967. The smoke billowed over the board and was visible from various parts of the city.

After 1:00 p.m., and according to journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso, firefighters were “exploring the building” and some “spots of fire” persisted.

According to the local government, some residents were evacuated to the nearby Ministry of Tourism and the Grand Aston Hotel, where 190 residents (8 children and 2 disabled) were treated. No one needs medical attention.

Three people were reported to need medical attention: Harold Rodriguez Avila, a firefighter, was in stable condition due to heat stroke; Olivia García Giménez, a neighbor with senile dementia, had “skin bruises, bruises on her joints” and Norma Perez Garcia, who was said to be “healthy.”

In total, seven people required medical treatment, including two firefighters who received oxygen in an ambulance.

According to him blog Cuban architectureThe construction of the building was by Antonio Quintana and Alberto Rodríguez Zuripas, with the collaboration of students of Architecture and Civil Engineering of the University of Havana and engineers Sixto Ruiz, Hugo Wainshtock Rivas and César Rivero Lage.

The building is composed of two 17-story towers, articulated by a center of elevators connected by long horizontal circulation tubes to stairways, with small shelves clad in stoneware extending from the facade, reducing the large screen effect in the towers, this source points out. .

The local government highlighted that many “economic, non-governmental and state actors” “voluntarily and in solidarity” attended to the evacuated neighbors, providing them with ice, water and food.