Just when you thought it was safe...

I was here getting all worked up over the London bombs and the state of security in Europe and the United States as I am going to be heading back first to the New York area and then off to England (and, I might add, I was feeling fairly happy and safe and comfortable in Costa Rica), when Monday night (and early Tuesday morning) things got exciting (and sort of frightening).

First, there was a bomb scare in San Pedro, near the Samar bakery (yummy bakery by the way). Evidently, two men got out of a car and placed a box in the street, all while wearing latex gloves. Then they drove away.
So, the police closed down the intersection (right downtown, between Calle de Amargura and Jazz Cafe, but on the other side of the street).

Of course, I saw this reported on the 7 o'clock news and everyone seemed pretty worried. Me too. But it has yet to appear anywhere else - in the papers, other TV channels, etc. Of course, that may be because everyone was distracted by what happened later that night.

At around 2 am (according to Ashley who heard all the sirens), a fire started in the Calderon Guardia hospital. The fire ended up consuming parts of the 3, 4, and 5th floors. Some of the worst damage was on the 5th floor, where the blaze started in a storage area in the neuro-surgery section. It started on one side of the floor, just next to the ONLY exit, cutting off the stairwell for all the patients on the 5th floor. 18 people died, many unable to move because they were hooked up to respirators and other machines. Others saved themselves by tying sheets together and climbing out the windows. The fire affected the maternity ward, where many mother with newborns had to escape. For an article with map, etc see here.

Basically, all of the hospitals in Costa Rica are vulnerable. In the Calderon Guardia there were no emergency exit lights or signs, no fire alarm sounded, and the sprinklers on the 5th floor didn't work. This section of the building was erected in the 1940s, like many of the hospitals in the country. Even the most recently built ones aren't up to code. So much for Costa Rica's amazing healthcare system.