Babies and mothers were safely evacuated, on Friday 20th November 2009, from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Maternity Unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, Newport, Isle of Wight after a fire in a parent’s rest room adjacent to the NICU.

Smoke from a wall fixed water heater, in this non-clinical area, was seen and the alarm raised at 17:03.   The evacuation of the NICU was started immediately.   The Isle of Wight Fire Service arrived at 17:11 and by 17:15 the fire had been extinguished.   The Fire Service were on site for a further hour helping to clear smoke out of the area.  

Four babies, less than a week old, were evacuated from the NICU to the Children’s Ward and were supported by consultant paediatric and specialist staff.   As a precaution eight mothers and four new born babies were evacuated from the adjacent Maternity Unit to Day Theatres and were supported by staff from the Maternity Unit.

Mothers, babies and staff returned to the Maternity Unit at 18.30hrs on the 20th November 2009.  Electrical repairs have been made today, 21st November 2009 and, following rigorous safety checks, babies and staff returned to the NICU at 15:00hrs.

Mark Price, Director of Corporate Affairs said:

“This was a serious incident but I want to thank all those involved -  staff, mothers and the Fire Service.   The prompt action of staff ensured that everyone involved was evacuated in a calm and orderly way in line with our well rehearsed fire evacuation plans.    Thank fully no one was injured and all mothers and babies were kept safe during the evacuation.”

The damage is limited to the parent’s room and the clean up of this room, including removal of the faulty water heater, was started immediately the Fire Brigade had declared the incident safe.  Pending safety checks a similar water heater has been taken out of use.