Cuba remembers today the date on which the inhabitants of Santa Clara (centre) organised, on this day in 1696, the first voluntary firefighting service, a precursor of the current Fire Brigade of the Caribbean nation. However, historical notes reveal that it was in 1832 when the Fire Brigade was founded in that locality, entities that gradually spread to the rest of the country. Nowadays, the members of this corps stand out for their heroism and dedication to fire prevention and extinguishing tasks, as well as rescue and salvage missions during emergencies or natural disasters. A transcendental moment of this profession took place here on 17 May 1890, during a fire in the Isasi hardware store, considered the greatest catastrophe of the time, which caused the death of 17 firefighters from Commerce, eight municipal and one from the Navy, among other victims.

The bravery of its men and women stood out again in time, on 5 August 2022, in the confrontation and control of the fire caused by an electrical discharge at the supertanker base in Matanzas (west), where 16 people lost their lives, most of them firefighters. Likewise, their actions have been recognised by the island’s population in the face of recurring weather events, in which they save human lives at the risk of their own.