Cuba’s National Firefighters Museum

I’ve had these photos in my files for quite some time. I took them on one of those days when I was returning from the Diocesan Archive of the Archdiocese of Havana. As I passed along Zulueta Street, between Ánimas and Neptuno, in Old Havana, I stopped to photograph this view of the Bacardi Building, wich I like so much.

I promise to dedicate an entire post to its details—it’s truly worth it… but today isn’t about that building, it’s about the one I was standing next to, and this is my entry for the #Monomad Challenge.

The building is the Charles Magoon Fire Station, now a museum. It operated as a fire station for a century, until June 2008, when—due to its historical and heritage value—the government decided to restore and transform it.

For many years it bore that name, as it was that governor during the United States occupation who inaugurated it in 1909. However, after 1959, it was renamed ‘Mártires de La Coubre’, in honour of the firefighters who battled the flames following the explosion of the French steamship.

Do you remember these telephone boards? 😃

It’s a small place. In the main hall, uniforms, tools, photographs, and historical documents are on display—bearing witness to a hundred years of heroic history, from our country’s colonial era to the present day.

The photo reveals an interesting fact about ladder carriages:

The ladder carriages used for rescues during colonial times were positioned level with the spot where trapped individuals were being pulled out, who then had to slide down a kind of mat. Drawn by horses, the vehicles were operated by three or four men. It is said that many of those horses were so well trained for the task that, at the sound of the alarm, they would position themselves in front of the vehicles on their own.

The following can be observed below is a steam pump donated by Raimundo Cabrera Bosh, distinguished essayist, journalist and lawyer, to the fire brigade of the town of Güines, southeast of Havana.

What truly caught my attention was the side area of the building, where remnants of fire engines and other items used by brave men during the catastrophe at the Matanzas Supertanker Base in August 2022 are exhibited. It stirred something in me, bringing back memories of those anguished days, marked by mourning in several families.

In that photo, one can see part of the Iveco Trakker Magirus foam truck belonging to the Cienfuegos Fire Department, who came to assist in those efforts on that tragic day."

This is what I believe was the engine of the Howo Sinotruck tanker from the Mayabeque Fire Department, after it was hit by that relentless fire.

Part of the Mitsubishi Fuso tanker truck from Havana, also destroyed at the Supertanker Base.

Cover created in Canva.

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Every image I include in my posts is mine. When it’s not, I credit the source in a caption.}