Unites from different fire stations and almost 500 firemen worked around the clock for 72 hours to complete extinguish the firer at the paper packaging warehouse in El Coyol, in Alajuela.
The fire broke out at 12:19 pm Saturday, May 2, in the Empaques Santa Ana warehouse.
The fire was under control by Sunday morning when work then focused on the total extinguishing of the fire.
“It is the largest fire we have had in the last 10 years, we are talking about 22,00 square meters of area and around 70,000 cubic meters of raw material (paper and wood). This has required a lot of resource displacement. At the beginning we had more than 11 fire extinguishing units, tanks, tankers, support vehicles,” said Luis Salas, the Bomberos (Fire Department) operational director.
A total of 490 firefighters from different areas of the country, both salaried and volunteer, worked to control and then extinguish the fire.
The vast majority of non-potable water supplies came from a lake, industrial parks and the Recope all near the fire.
The origin and cause of the first is still unknown. Salas said the investigation started this Tuesday morning, now that the fire is complete out.
