The end of 2015 caused great alarm to the community of Tamarindo, because the community suffered from three strong fires in less than 20 days, and the closest fire department is located in Santa Cruz, 40 kilometers away.
In chronological order, the first fire occurred on November 12th in a condominium located 200 meters north of Capitan Suizo Hotel. Then on November 13th, the Patagonia del Mar restaurant burned down completely and finally, on December 9th, El Pescador restaurant caught fire.
According to Ali Camacho, chief of the Santa Cruz fire department, when there is an emergency, they might take up to 30 minutes to get to Tamarindo. However, the station assigned to cover that beach is not Santa Cruz but rather Filadelfia.
“Tamarindo was assigned to Filadelfia since the road from Philadelphia to Tamarindo was much better before than the one to Santa Cruz, so it was faster for responding to an emergency. In Santa Cruz we likewise support Tamarindo and we are working to have it assigned to us by February,” Camacho said.
According to the Firefighters press department, the approximate distance from Filadelfia to Tamarindo is 43 kilometers and the emergency response time is estimated to take about 45 minutes.
Huacas the Closest Option
In view of the long distances between the Santa Cruz coast, they hope to open a new station in Huacas later this year that, in addition to covering Tamarindo, can also help with the Flamingo area. It would be located 800 meters from the Huacas intersection heading towards Potrero Beach.
Allan Murom, regional fire chief, explained that there is already a budget for the station and they intended to open it last year. However, for now, the place doesn’t have water viability, which has delayed it.
This station would reduce the length of arrival time almost by half because the approximate distance from Huacas to Tamarindo is 14 kilometers, which means the response time will be approximately 15 minutes.
Comments