Staff at a lab inside Victoria General Hospital were evacuated from the room Wednesday after an appliance “burned up,” according to View Royal’s fire chief.
Fire Chief Paul Hurst says the View Royal Fire Department received a call for alarms ringing at the hospital, located at 1 Hospital Way, around 11 a.m.
He tells CHEK News that while en route, firefighters learned of a reported fire in a lab on the third floor, so resources from fire departments in Colwood, Esquimalt and Langford were called in to help.
“Crews investigated, and they located a large appliance on the third floor that had burned up. It created a smoke condition that was migrating under the patient floors,” Hurst said in an interview outside the hospital.
He says no one was injured.
“We evacuated the lab area, but it didn’t disrupt any operations. We didn’t move any patients off the floor. We were able to isolate it to the lab,” he said.
In total, 30 firefighters were on scene, which is “standard response for us to the hospital,” explained Hurst. “For any reported or possible fire, we can bring in our mutual aid partners.”
Crews brought the incident under control “pretty quick,” he added.
“They managed to ventilate the smoke using the building system and our own fans,” said Hurst. “Job well done. Another day in View Royal.”
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