Arson fear on hospital fire

A major fire that raged through a disused hospital in Stafford is thought to have been started deliberately.

The Grade II listed former St George's Hospital building was the scene of a huge inferno which engulfed the central tower of the building on Saturday morning and needed more than 30 firefighters to bring under control.

But the site's owners say that the blaze will not prevent planned developments going ahead. The fire sent a huge plume of smoke hundreds of feet into the air and caused an alert for nearby homeowners over fears asbestos fibres would be released by the flames.

Crews also searched for anyone who may have been sleeping rough in the building, but it is not thought anyone was inside at the time.

Staffordshire Police say they believe the fire was deliberately started and have launched an investigation.

Fire crews from all over the county were involved in putting out the fire with teams having to maintain a watching brief over the scene at the weekend to ensure the fire did not re-ignite.

Stan Cooper, station manager at Stafford fire station, said firefighters had to cut through steel fencing and use crow bars to get inside the building which by then was well alight. He said: "You could see the smoke from miles away. We sent in six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus on the ground floor at the seat of the fire."

He said that due to the extensive damage he made the decision to call the men back out of the building for fear the floors would collapse and called in two aerial ladder platforms to fight the fire from above.

Mr Cooper said: "It was a very severe fire and very dangerous for firefighters to go in there in the dark and smoke. Our first concern is the safety of the firefighters."

Mr Cooper urged people not to go in the building saying: "The complexity of St George's Hospital means if you go in there and you have to find your way back out through the maze of corridors or you fall and break a leg you are in real trouble. It is very dangerous in there."

Developer Fred Pritchard, who hopes to develop the site for housing, said the fire had not destroyed the integrity of the structure or the ornate stone work and he pledged the project would go ahead this autumn.

Mr Pritchard said: "It is not as catastrophic as you might first think. We are going to retain the structure, the firefighters did a brilliant job of protecting the integrity of the building. "

Mr Pritchard said the fire had done a lot of the work for him as it was intended to replace the roof and floors anyway. He said there had been numerous break-ins at the site by people wanting to see inside building.

On one occasion someone was almost locked inside when security staff attempted to re-secure a loose panel that had been prised off a window.