If you follow our Twitter or Facebook feeds you’ll know there was a fire in the Albany Prison building at HMP Isle of Wight last night (Wednesday).
The Isle of Wight Fire Service had five pumps in attendance when they called OnTheWight, but this soon escalated to seven.
It wasn’t just the fire service who were called into action. The fire had a knock-on effect for St Mary’s Hospital too.
A spokesman for Isle of Wight NHS Trust said:
“Isle of Wight Ambulance Service was alerted at 20:41 to an incident at HMP Albany involving fire.
“The Trust declared a major incident. This facilitates the mobilisation of additional resources including additional staff and putting additional agencies on standby to support Island based services.
“Four patients were transferred from the Prison to St. Mary’s with severe smoke inhalation – some have already been discharged. Six other patients were assessed, treated (oxygenated) and kept at the Prison (this includes two admitted to the Prison hospital facility).
“The Major Incident was stood down at 23:52hrs. Thank you to all staff who responded to the major incident call out.”
