Londonderry hospital reopens after two fires in two weeks

A hospital in Londonderry which has been partly closed due to two fires breaking out within two weeks has been deemed safe to use again by the health minister Edwin Poots.

Seven wards at Altnagelvin Hospital were evacuated last week after a fire started on the roof of the building.

Mr Poots said: “I wouldn’t want people to become frightened or afraid of actually using the facility. An investigation is being carried out, and I wouldn’t want to prejudge it, but the fire service are following a particular lead and I would be fairly confident that it will be proved that it was not the fabric of the building that was the problem. This building isn’t sitting with faulty wiring which is causing fires in it – that isn’t the case.”

SDLP representative, Pat Ramsey had voiced his concerns as to the safety of the building and demanded an inspection of the building. Mr Ramsey said: “It is imperative, absolutely essential, that the department of health or other bodies who have a jurisdiction in this – health and safety – carry out an inspection of the tower block as it is commonly known.”

Geraldine Hillick, the hospital’s director of acute services said: “If we deemed the area unsafe for patients we wouldn’t have been using it, so from our point of view the wards were safe for the patients to be cared for in.”

Barry McDowell from the Fire service said the cause of the fire was under investigation but arson is not suspected at this time. It is likely that the fire started accidentally in a plant room on the roof.

Mr McDowell said: “We believe a water pipe melted, and a lot of water then started coming down through the hospital.”

Around 120 patients had to be moved from the affected wards on Friday night but the trust has said that five out of the seven wards evacuated are now operating normally.