Firefighters have been mobilised to St Mary’s Hospital in Newport this morning (Thursday).
At least 3 appliances from Newport and Ryde have been tipped out to the hospital on Parkhurst Road.
The Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service were alerted to a potential fire by the sounding of the building’s alarms at around 08:30.
UPDATE @ 08:51 – All resources have now been stood down from the incident after spending just 9 minutes on scene.
It has been confirmed that the alarm sounded as a result of an interruption to the power supply.
Ryde’s appliance were stood down prior to arrival.
It surely is not very clever for an important fire alarm or any alarm system for that matter to give a false alarm simply due to a mains power failure. Even the most basic security systems have a standby battery to give continuity of service.
I cannot imagine what the cost of having three appliances turning out to this false alarm must have been. Questions need to be asked why this system break down was allowed to happen but good that nobody was hurt!