But the Coastside - and Cunha's owner Beverly "Bev" Cunha Ashcraft - channeled sorrow over the fire into action.
Donations poured in "from all over," Ashcraft said. Fund-raisers helped the employees until unemployment kicked in.
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Since the fire, employees collected unemployment, spent time with family, took classes, and, in may cases, kept working with Ashcraft, rebuilding records that were lost, getting in touch with vendors, helping with rebuilding.
And they looked forward to the day when "the heart of Half Moon Bay" would be restored. That day is almost here.
It seems inconceivable that Cunha's, a 75-year-old business, should be gone. When it burned, Ashcraft, in shock, stoically watched from inside City Hall, surrounded by sobbing employees. But as soon as the charred skeleton was gone, she got restless.
"I couldn't stand to see that bare lot in the corner," she said.
Within four months, she had arranged for new equipment, contacted vendors and started to direct the rebuilding.
"I've been on the go all day" since then, she grinned. "So busy I haven't had time to think."
She's been learning about things she didn't have experience with, she said, things like sprinkler systems, stair widths and building codes.
All the while, employees "always come by" the temporary office in her house. "I feel like the young ones are my own kids."
She'd set a May 21 anniversary deadline for reopening but now, she says, the work is going so smoothly, it may be sooner.
On the first day, she plans that the doors will open at 8 a.m. for business as usual. But on Friday, May 21, there will be a celebration. Starting about 6:30 p.m., Ashcraft said, Main Street will be closed, food booths manned by the local merchants' association members will open, and there will be entertainment, revelry, visits by dignitaries and kids.
"I want it to be family party," she said.
"I'll be around, checking things out," she said with a twinkle. "I don't think I'll ever retire and stay home and do nothing. When you're used to being around people, it's very depressing to sit around the home."
Her employees share both her get-up-and-go spirit and their devotion to her and to her store.
HELEN MCGILLIVRAY
She's spent 42 years as a Cunha's employee, so it makes sense that McGillivray, a diminutive woman whose spunk and energy belie her 78 years, knew every customer by name.
"I'm ready" to go back to work, she snapped. "I'm tired of solitaire and crossword puzzles."
She spent the months taking care of a hospitalized sister, and being hugged by well-wishers in the streets. "I've missed so many of them," she said.
JOSIE DIAZ
Josie Diaz, who celebrates 15 years behind the Cunha's cash register in May, is almost synonymous with the store. And she's only strengthened that link.
She spent this time at home and caring for family. But she's also been at Ashcraft's side, helping her with "anything she needs" and caring for Ashcraft's mother, Joya.
It's like she never left, she said.
"It's felt to me like my home. I feel like I belong there," she said. "I didn't feel like making it anywhere else. I didn't even try."
YADIRA ORTIZ
Josie's daughter, Yadira Ortiz, 18, has been a bagger for four years. She said she has Cunha's in her blood.
"I grew up there," she said. "It felt like a part of me was gone."
Ortiz has focused on her senior year at Half Moon Bay High School and part-time work at Longs Drugs. She'd done both before the fire, and plans to do the same after the reopening.
"It's pretty exciting to have it back," she said. "I can't wait."
KATHY (TRAINER) LLORENTE
The store's bustling general manager and bookkeeper for 12 years, Llorente now goes by her married name.
She never really left, after the fire. Within a week, she was helping Ashcraft with insurance. Within a month, she was busy with rebuilding discussions. As reopening nears, she's even busier.
"I'm having a hard time catching my breath, knowing there's so much more to do," she said. "I think the first month is going to be absolutely crazy."
The new things, like computers and meat slicers, won't daunt her.
"I'm excited," she said. "Breathlessly."
SUSIE MAYA
An eight-year Cunha's employee at the cash register, Susie Maya had job offers, but nixed them.
"I know I can do a lot of jobs," she said. "But my feeling is, I have to go back."
She didn't qualify for unemployment as a part-time student, taking computer science classes at Canada College. So she found part-time work at the Half Moon Bay Bakery, and became a full-time student.
When Cunha's reopens, she'll cut school back to part-time. Though computer work is a goal, she feels she owes something to Ashcraft.
"Bev helped my family (including hiring her siblings), so I think it is time to help her now," she said. "She needs everyone, so I go to work. She's very special to us."
STEVE MAYA
Susie works just down the aisle from brother Estaban "Steve" Maya, a nine-year stocker there.
He had been working half-time at Cunha's and half-time at Safeway. After the fire, he upped his hours at Safeway, but when Cunha's reopens, he will cut those down.
"It felt bad" when the store burned, he said, but now, "It's going to be really good to start again for Bev."
TARY SANCHEZ
A Cunha's produce manager for seven years, Sanchez turned to school. He studies business administration and computer science at Canada College, and goes to yoga classes at the Enso gallery in Half Moon Bay twice a week.
It's been a productive time, though rough at first.
"We worked like a team," he said. "Bev was very nice. She took care of us. She's a wonderful woman."
As for the store, he said, "It was like my house."
BONNIE HARRELL
With her son gone to college, Bonnie Harrell, the 13-year upstairs manager and buyer, filled the now-empty extra bedroom with the catalogs she used to peruse.
Since the fire, she's spent time sitting out in the sunshine, going through them.
She has also "enjoyed each day to the hilt," reading "book after book." And cooking for her husband, getting her son to college and getting a tan on Christmas Day, she said.
"I got to relax and be at home ... and not be pushed!"
JOY SCHMELTZER
Joy Schmeltzer, an eight-year cashier upstairs, focused on family. She was able to see all her four children, spend Christmas with kids and grandkids for the first time in years, and visit an aunt and uncle she hadn't seen in 40 years.
"If I were working, I wouldn't get a chance to do that," she said.
She also read, caught up on TV's "Days of Our Lives" and did volunteer work. She and Harrell helped out at the Teddy Bear Clinic, the Johnston House Christmas boutique, and Boys and Girls Club activities.
Still, she's chafing to go back to work. "I've been hanging in there," she said, "till it's back."
SHARI MILLS
Shari Mills, grocery buyer for Cunha's for 12 years, divided her time between homes in Half Moon Bay and Grass Valley, where she and husband Robert keep horses on their ranch. She says she looks forward to getting back to buying the wine, general groceries, frozen and delicatessen foods.
She's obviously missed that. "I have to try it all before I buy it," she quipped.
KIT BURKE
Kit Burke, meat department manager for eight-and-a-half years, remembers watching the store burning with her teenage daughter clinging to her. "She was so protective," Burke said.
Since then, the mother and daughter have grown closer. "I've been driving her nuts," said Burke.
Since then, it's "been an amazing experience." She recalls the senior woman on a fixed income, who gave $100 for the employees.
"She didn't really have the money, but there were several like that. "It's been amazing that everybody has stepped up and gave us all that time and kept us all together. It wouldn't have happened if not for the community. Bev kept it together, in my opinion."
She says while the store won't be exactly the same, it will be close.
"The people, their hearts, the customers, will all be there."
CHERYL NANNETTI
Just days ago, Cheryl Nannetti, a Cunha's accountant for three years, got a call from a vendor who wondered why she hadn't had orders for a while.
Nannetti's now awaiting the time she can sample the treats she's been without for months, like those "little chocolate turtles I liked."
She describes the vendor's call as "spooky." After all, she helped Ashcraft sift through the rubble for records. "We'd gone through the burnt cash. It was masks, rubber gloves, tweezers."
Since the blaze, she's been a liaison with the vendors and close to the employees. "Almost every day, we talk about it," she said. "It's in the forefront of our minds."
CANDY BRIONES
For just a year, every morning, Candy Briones was at work by 8 a.m., making sandwiches for school kids and then stocking shelves. And she plans to do that again soon.
"I haven't done it for a year and I've been paid" by community generosity, she said. And she wants to pay back: "I'll do anything for that lady (Bev).
"I can't even start to tell how the community took care of us."
Since the fire, she's focused on enjoying life and family. And helping Ashcraft, using a line that that capture Cunha's stance toward customers: "Can I do anything for you?"
UBALDO CALIXTO
Though only stocking beverage shelves for a year-and-a-half, Ubaldo Calixto was rocked by the fire.
"Oh God, I was crying," he said. "I felt like, when I worked there, it was my family."
He too has fond words for Ashcraft: "She treated me like I was her son."
His English has gotten more fluent in recent months, due to classes at the College of San Mateo. And he has done volunteer work, at the weekly No Strings Attached breakfast at the Ted Adcock Community Center. Will he be back? "I'm waiting."
BONNA SMITH
From the meat counter, Bonna Smith has taken diverse classes like floral science, abnormal psychology and ballroom dancing.
Is she ready now to trade her dancing shoes for beefsteaks?
"Oh yeah, definitely," she said. "I loved the people - laid-back and sweet."
She loved it enough to commute from her San Mateo home.
"The atmosphere, the music, made for a nice setting," she said. "It was a nice place to work."
ERNIE FERNANDEZ
A butcher for Cunha's for five years, Ernie Fernandez turned to family after the fire. He spent time with his 9-year-old son, and cared for his aged father.
But he didn't forget Cunha's. He plans to be back.
"There's a lot of loyalty there," he insisted. "Bev is a great person to work for."
He said he enjoys both customers and coworkers. He may even be back a little before opening, to help stock shelves.
"I'm happy it's coming back together," he said.
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