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Globe Live Media, Saturday, January 30, 2021
Firefighters from Santiago de Chile have confirmed a huge fire declared early this morning at the San Borja Arriaran hospital in the capital.
The alert has been declared around 07:00 in the morning and there is still no record of victims, while at least seven fire companies and 37 trucks, with more than a hundred troops, work on the site to control the emergency.
Evacuation procedures are already underway between the north wing of the compound and the security yard, two areas away from the flames, according to sources from the National Emergency Office of the Interior Ministry (ONEMI) to the newspaper ‘El Mercurio’.
According to sources, the main point of the emergency would have taken place on the third floor of the healthcare facility, in the children’s ICU, specifically in a warehouse.
There is also evidence of serious damage to the plant immediately above, as confirmed by the Chilean Emergency Information Network.
The Minister of Health, Óscar Enrique Paris Mancilla is already in the vicinity “to verify the damage caused by fire on the ground and coordinate work with hospital personnel and firefighters,” according to a statement published by his portfolio on Twitter.