It was November 8 and some Faculty members gathered for dinner, as they would later go together to Medicine Night, a show organized every year by the students of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.

Those who know her know that it is not usual for her to have her mobile on the table while she’s eating, but she was waiting for a phone call from a co-worker who was also going to join them for dinner.

At 08:15 pm when the phone rang, she realized that it was not the call she was expecting. On the other side, a distressed security guard said, “the Aula Magna is on fire.”

She says that she doesn’t remember her first reaction, but those around her say that she jumped out of her chair and said she was leaving because the Aula Magna was on fire. On that day she had invited her husband and Engineer at the Santa Maria, Hospital, Nuno Jorge, to accompany her in a moment that was supposed to be a celebration.

The three arrived at the Hospital in just a few minutes.

Credits: Diário de Notícias journal

The first image she describes is a lot of smoke coming out of the building. A few minutes later, Isabel Aguiar was joined by the computer team, João Godinho, responsible for the Audiovisual team and Mr. Costa , his right arm for all issues involving logistics. Later came other members of her team who she doesn’t fail to mention, Rui Gomes, responsible for Human Resources, and Carine Pires, who was advising her on administrative matters at the time. Some Professors, Mamede de Carvalho, , António Vaz Carneiro, and Melo Cristino , also joined them, worried, leaving Medicine Night behind. When she remembers all her team and the solidarity she felt, she gets emotional and stops talking.

She stays silent and apologizes.

Those who know her know she doesn’t cry easily.

With her team

Then she resumes her account. She remembers the firefighters and civil protection, then the police. She managed to take a peek at the administration corridor and the council to make sure there were no damages. She was worried about the property, the excessive use of water to put out the fire and the smoke extraction processes.

Despite the obstacles that forced her to exceed herself, she highlights the coordination of a team that went into action in record time, even before the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lisboa Norte Hospital Centre had realized what was happening.

Quickly and shortly afterwards, the cleaning team cleared the passageway leading to the Aula Magna. Later on, other companies arrived to help with the cleaning, in an attempt to eliminate the smell of smoke. In an attempt to eliminate the memory of November 8 once and for all.

“We were already working on a project for the Aula Magna, even before the fire”, she says. There were two main concerns on the table, improving safety conditions, addressing all evacuation, signage and extinction issues, while meeting the needs of a new multimedia system. “I remember that Professor Fausto was very displeased with a connection from the Aula Magna to the operating theatre that didn’t turn out as he had imagined it. At the time he asked why, and the fact is that there was a lack of investment in that space, since the opening of the João Lobo Antunes Grand Auditorium”. Seemingly forgotten, the Aula Magna was falling into disrepair as years went by, and it was “only used by the Faculty veterans and for academic acts”. A change in mindset was needed to restore the lecture hall as an event hub. She met with João Godinho and challenged him to think about the best multimedia solution with her. “We had the possibility of modernizing the space and the rest would come naturally,” she mentions each process by heart as if she were reading notes on an open notebook.

They had acoustics on their side; despite the need for improvements and modernization, there were good acoustic foundations. “These are old facilities, but their architecture and technical structure are very well designed. Even today, our auditoriums have very good acoustics thanks to the use of simple building materials”.

Time is an interesting factor here. A fire breaks out in November 2017 and a fully renovated lecture hall reopens in February 2019. It took a little over a year to react and complete the works. It was a record.

Isabel Aguiar: Yes, because part of the project was already being developed. The bulk of the intervention that people can see is the material that lines the upper walls, which is called decustik (acoustic walls) and was also used on the ceiling. We contacted a sound engineer, and he was a very experienced professional who helped us make technical quality improvements.

Renovating the chairs was also urgent. Those that existed had not been designed for that space, they were very comfortable, but not the most appropriate ones. So what did we do? We packed about 280 chairs and stored them properly. My idea is to use them in the new Reynaldo dos Santos Building. We only lost 20 to 30 chairs in the fire. The ones we could use were cleaned and aired before being packed. These chairs had an excellent burning behaviour, because they are fire resistant (they were purchased for the 1997 renovation). I remember when the guy from the upholstery cleaning company came in, he touched one of the chairs and tested it, and said “we’ve got chairs!”.

Everything else was the result of our affection and of what we planned to give the Aula Magna a lighter appearance. It was a real modernization project to turn it once again into our Main Lecture Hall.

I would like to back to the moment when you entered the room after the fire. And to what you experienced then.

Isabel Aguiar: It was a great shock. A shock… There was smoke… There were several chairs burned in the middle of the room because the video projector had fallen on them, the air conditioners, which were new, had melted down.

It was very complicated…

That morning at 9 Carine, Ana Silva who works in Facility Management and I, joined forces to ask other Schools for support, to host our events. And we did it! That morning we sorted everything out. Our unity in the face of adversity was fantastic.

I can tell you that for several months I got emotional every time I looked at the coat I wore that day, which smelled a lot like smoke. My car also smelled like smoke for a long time.

After the shock, came the joy of seeing what we had managed to save. Plenty of audiovisual material, which João cleaned with all his patience. The worst area, which despite not having burnt down was blackened by smoke, was the control room. On the other hand, the wood worked like actual fire doors.

Does anyone know what happened?

Isabel Aguiar: No, the Criminal Police investigation was inconclusive. We were told that these things also happen in new buildings. It might have been a short circuit. It was an unfortunate accident and, due to the thermal load, a fire broke out.

After a lot of team work, after seeing a work in which you got involved with all your soul being inaugurated, how do you feel now?

Isabel Aguiar: Very happy for having done it and pleased people. Because we don’t work for ourselves, we work for people. I’m also very happy to see that the whole team managed to respond to the Faculty Administration. We had a great responsibility on our shoulders, and we had to manage our budget very strictly. We succeeded, we got a happy ending. Not everything was perfect, I lost many hours of sleep and there were many setbacks, but it was worth the effort!

I hope the Aula Magna hosts plenty of good events, that’s what is expected of it!

Isabel Aguiar is the Head of Service of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. Now that she has completed this task, she’s already looking ahead to new challenges, acting as the driving force behind so many events. “My next dream is to properly renovate the António José Serrano Auditorium, that hardest one to deal with and, therefore, the most challenging one”. And we have no doubts that she will make it!

Joana Sousa

Editorial Team