According to Graciete Nunes, Cunene's provincial health director, none of the more than 200 patients in the hospital unit suffered direct consequences of the fire, and they were all distributed among the three health centers in the province.
Graciete Nunes, who was speaking this Tuesday to the Lusa agency, regretted the death of a patient, who had already died in the place to which she had been transferred.
"The hospital has capacity for 200 beds, but usually there are always more than that, sometimes we have corridors with patients and all that. I can't need [how many were admitted], but more than 200 patients," said the director, noting that the entire operating room and the surgical service wards were hit.
Urged to comment on reports of patients reporting an electrical problem before the fire broke out, Graciete Nunes said it happened "three hours before the larger fire".
"There was a short circuit from the ceiling of an infirmary and the firemen were called, they came and saw the situation. It was no big deal, even as there was no light in the surgery services came ENDE (National Energy Distribution Company) that also saw the situation and only after three hours this bigger fire happened", she explained.
"For a matter of precaution", the patients were removed and placed in the corridors of the hospital, said the responsible.
In statements to the press, the provincial commander of the Civil Protection and Fire Service, Paulo Calunga, rejected that there had been negligence regarding this sign, confirming the presence of the firefighters on site three hours before the fire.
"We were here at 6:00 pm, we made the intervention that was necessary and we stopped the situation. At that time, it had only covered the surgery area, we did everything that was within our reach, everything that needed to be done, was done, and afterwards we were told that, around 9:45 pm, the fire had reactivated, but at that time already in that area of the block", he stressed.
Asked why the firefighters didn't stay there, Paulo Calunga justified that after that intervention, the alert levels had dropped and, therefore, it didn't make sense to leave the firefighters there "to avoid panic".
"We went [away] and stayed almost three hours without any occurrence," he stressed.
Cunene's provincial health director said the medical teams are working by specialties in the three hospital centers to which the patients were transferred.
"The only thing is that if we have an emergency problem for the operating room we have to see the situation, but everything is calmer," she said.
