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200 patients escape from hospital blaze
Peter Dominiczak2 Sep 2009
Up to 200 patients were evacuated from a hospital in Surrey after two ambulances caught fire outside the building.
Smoke was seen billowing from one of the vehicles in the delivery bay, where it was on standby, and moments later it was engulfed in flames. Two oxygen cylinders aboard ruptured and exploded, feeding the fire.
The blaze spread to a second ambulance in the same bay and then to part of the hospital block.
A firefighter and three hospital staff suffered minor injuries in the fire, which was declared a "major incident".
Firefighters were called to St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey, shortly after 5pm yesterday.
Hospital windows were blown out as the oxygen cylinders exploded.
Witness Gary White, 20, who works in the hospital coffee shop, said he saw thick black smoke coming into the hospital.
He said: "It was a real blast. It didn't shake the walls, but I thought it was a bomb going off."
Road sweeper Michael Cornwell, 21, was working opposite the hospital when the force of the explosion hit him.
He said: "There was an explosion... it was like a bomb going off. It went right through me."
Hospital staff said no patients were injured.
Reader views (1)
i live approx half a mile away from the hospital and we heard the explosion at first we thought it was thunder or a skip being put down in the next road the bang was so loud it startled us all
- Karen, morden, 02/09/2009 12:46
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