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Southland hospital fire demolishes building
09 August 2006
A large fire has destroyed a two-storey Southland Hospital building, used for laundry and cleaning storage.
Invercargill Fire Brigade chief fire officer Morris Robertson said hospital patients and staff had not been in any danger, as the building was separate from the main hospital.
Eight fire appliances and about 35 fire fighters from Invercargill and surrounding towns had battled the blaze.
The fire service was alerted at 9.30pm last night, and the fire was "well involved" when appliances reached the building, Mr Robertson said.
"We managed to save a dangerous goods store near the fire but the laundry is a total loss," he said.
Fire fighters had the fire under control by 11.30pm, but had planned to remain at the scene overnight.
Mr Robertson said there was no indication of what caused the fire, but investigators would examine the scene this morning.
A fire on Tuesday night at Southland Hospital, Invercargill has destroyed a two-storey building which was used for laundry and cleaning by the cleaning company Alsco. 

Junior doctors and interns were evacuated from the nearby hospital campus. A dangerous goods store nearby nearby was saved from the fire. The building was not close enough to the new main hospital building to cause any damage to it. 

Morris Robertson, Fire Chief, said: "We managed to save a dangerous goods store near the fire but the laundry is a total loss."

Fire crews arrived at the scene at 9.30 p.m. (NZST) and Morris Robertson said that the building was well ablaze when they arrived. The first was so severe that they had to call in other firefighters to help, including volunteers. In total there was eight fire engines and 35 firefighters.

The fire was under control by 11.30 p.m. but the fire crews stayed overnight, just in case.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.