Hospital fire 'treated as arson attack'

A fire in Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital was tonight thought by police to have been started deliberately.

Police investigating the blaze which caused extensive smoke damage to a counselling room and offices containing medical records said they were treating it as suspicious.

However, they said that after a detailed examination of the scene they had not pinpointed the exact cause of the fire.

The fire was not the first started by arsonists at the hospital in the recent past.

Police were urged to investigate the latest blaze by the Fire and Rescue Service after they became suspicious while tackling the fire after it was discovered by hospital staff late on Sunday evening.

Hospital chief executive, Elaine Way, said they knew there had been damage to one of the office buildings at the hospital earlier in the afternoon.

“There were some widows broken. It seems this may have been another case of a window broken and then something lit having been put into the office.”

The hospital has insisted that patients and staff had not been in danger and that treatments and appointments could continue as normal.

But Ms Way said the damage to the counselling room was a particularly sad loss for patients and staff.

“It is used by our team of psychology staff to help counsel patients who have received diagnosis of either a chronic illness or a terminal illness,” she said.