When lightning struck an oil storage facility in western Cuba on Aug. 5, the resulting blaze burned for days, injured dozens of people and sparked further concerns about the island nation’s already limited energy supply.
Former Key West city commissioner Tony Yaniz, who has led prior efforts to “reconnect our cultural and historical ties with Cuba,” is now leading a humanitarian effort to provide medical supplies and financial donations to the hospitals and their burn patients.
“Cuban hospitals have no latex gloves, no antibiotics and no silvadene,” Yaniz told the Keys Weekly this week after speaking with The Rotary Club of Key West, which is helping the efforts using its Rotary International connection. “The workers are using folded hand fans to cool off the burn victims, and people over there are telling me no one’s helping them.”
Yaniz emphasized that his efforts have nothing whatsoever to do with politics, or the United States’ controversial embargo that has been in place since 1958, when Fidel Castro’s Communist regime took over Cuba.
“This is not political. Our sister island needs our help,” Yaniz said, adding that he’s been visiting the local hospital as well as churches and doctors’ offices seeking donations of gloves as well as the burn ointment silvadene, which is applied to unhealed burn wounds.
“I’ve reached out to the city to see if it’s viable to send some of our fire department’s men and women to Cuba as a show of support,” he said, comparing it to the times Keys Energy Services sends its linemen and other workers to other cities to help with hurricane recovery and power restoration efforts.
“This effort has snowballed so quickly,” Yaniz said. “I’m also working on a benefit concert at Key West Theater, which has been generous to provide the venue and local musicians are getting quickly on board.”
A donation account has been established as well, and checks can be made payable to Rotary Club of Key West Foundation, with the word “Cuba” on the memo line.
Yaniz will pick up checks or they can be dropped off at his house. He can be reached at 305-587-1107.
