Episode 201: Ycuá Bolaños Supermarket Explosion

On August 1, 2004, at about 11:20 AM, a grocery store in Asunción, Paraguay exploded. An immense wall of flame dropped from the ceiling and swept through the building. People near the source were reduced to ashes instantly. The fire moved so fast that many victims likely never registered what was happening. The store was Ycuá Bolaños, a regional chain that had opened a striking two-story location called Botánico, with a food court seating 300, a bakery, a deli, and even an automotive section. It was supposed to be a nice place to shop. Instead, it became one of the worst building fires in modern history.

The building and the fire

The store was housed in a distinctive 1960s Googie-style building with a dramatic roof shaped like a series of Doritos, planters growing bushes on its horizontal surfaces, and a large glass block wall. It had a shopping floor on the upper level and a parking lot underneath. Above the shopping floor was a drop ceiling—a standard system of tiles suspended from the structural roof, used to conceal wiring, ductwork, and plumbing while reducing the volume of space that needed climate control.