Guiones – Guiones - On Wednesday, August 4th, at 11:20 p.m. Manuel Pérez, an employee of a construction site located across from the Mini Súper Delicias del Mundo, heard the supermarket alarm system go off. Half and hour later, he saw the smoke. 

The business owner, Patricia Jiménez, also heard the alarm and called the local security company (Kearmy) to report it. That was just the beginning a long night, during which Police officers, Kearmy Security, all of the construction's employees and several friends, including myself, worked together to fight the fire.

Fortunately, when the Nicoya Fire Department arrived, it was already under control. They arrived an hour and a half after the Fire Department's headquarters in San Jose, alerted them. This was pretty fast, considering the terrible condition of the road and the 1200 gallons of water, carried in the two fire trucks. “The big machine (the extinguishing unit) almost got stuck in a ditch after the Rio Frio's bridge", the squad's chief, Johnny García said. “This road does not offer the necessary conditions to reach Nosara fast enough”, he added.

According to García, the fire might be caused by a short-circuit in one of the supermarket's fans, which got overheated. For the fire to start, only a strong spark and the presence of oxygen were needed.

By 12:30 a.m., the flames could be seen coming out of the roof.  “I opened the backdoor, where the storage room is located, since the fire was located in the front part of the building, and a huge cloud of smoke came over me; after that, I don't remember exactly how things went. I was in shock". This is how Patricia describes the start of a night that will stay in her memory for a long time. “After that, I started to react almost automatically, I just kept thinking about looking for water and putting out the fire that was destroying many year's of my life's work", she continued. 
 
Around 1:00 a.m, when the police officers arrived. They had to break the windows in order to insert a water hose until a Kearmy officer was finally able to break through the main door. Upon arrival of the fireman at 2:30 a.m, the fire had already been put out and they were able to make sure that the danger was over.

The seven Mini Super employees who will be unemployed for several months are among the numerous losses of the night. Like the owners of the store, all of them have families to support. Half of the store is completely ruined, with burned cans and plastic containers strewn all over. Until just a few days ago, it used to be the place where we went to buy our groceries, socialize with our neighbors or purchase that special beer to watch the sunset. Hopefully, by November, the "Mini" will open its doors once again.

Ricardo Micali, after he put up the last few flames on the ceiling.

There are no fire hydrants in Nosara. There is a donation of fireman appliances, from Switzerland. However there is no trained team to use the equipment or truck to carry it. Therefore the fire was put up with the help of members of the local community and the owners. Alex Díaz (right)and Ricardo Micali(middle below) are some of the people who helped to put up the fire.

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