Fire at Ponta Delgada Hospital forces patients to be removed | Azores

A fire broke out this Saturday morning at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, “in a technical area”, forcing the transfer of patients ventilated to a private health unit. AThe flames are “circumscribed”, said a hospital source.

According to the health unit’s communications office, “ventilated patients will be transferred to the CUF Hospital”, located in the city of Lagoa, on the island of São Miguel, and “in principle, some patients will also be transferred to the Health Center “.

The same source also told Lusa that “the hospital discharges of hospitalized patients who would leave throughout the day were brought forward”.

According to a statement from the largest health unit in the Azores, “the fire was detected on the 1st floor and the hospital’s emergency plan was activated and all the measures provided for there are being taken”.

Contacted by the Lusa agency, a source from the hospital, on the island of São Miguel, said that the fire “is contained”. Ponta Delgada Volunteer Firefighters are on site.

For safety reasons, the Hospital asks the population to avoid going to the health unit “unless in an urgent/emergency situation” and that visitors to patients “do not go” to the hospital “until further information”.

Due to the fire, the mass for the sick, which was to be held this morning, in the hospital unit, as part of the feast of Senhor Santo Cristo, was not celebrated, according to information from the Diocese of Angra.

In the note sent to the newsrooms by the Church’s Diocesan Social Communications service, the bishop of Angra laments the fire. “It is undoubtedly a sad event and that is why my first word goes to the Hospital Administration, to the Hospital Chaplaincy, but above all to the patients. If there is a place where the Feast of Senhor Santo Cristo should arrive, this would be it,” said Armando Esteves Domingues to Sítio Igreja Açores.

The causes of the fire are still unknown.