A 53-year-old man has been detained under the Mental Health Act following yesterday’s fire at Croydon University Hospital which forced the closure of the usually busy Accident and Emergency department for more than 18 hours.
Open again: the A&E unit at Mayday needed a deep clean before it could reopen
According to hospital authorities, arson is the suspected cause of the fire. More than 80 patients, plus staff had to be evacuated when the fire alarm sounded. There were no reports of any injuries.
The A&E department was open again this morning, after a deep clean operation to deal with the smoke damage caused by the fire, which gutted one room in the new building, which opened in 2018.
“We’re pleased to confirm that our Emergency Department is once again fully open following yesterday’s fire that caused damage to a patient cubicle, with smoke and soot affecting many other areas of the department,” a Croydon Health Services NHS Trust spokesperson told Inside Croydon.
“Our teams, internally supported by colleagues elsewhere in south-west London, have worked throughout the night to thoroughly clean and repair the affected areas and we were able to safely reopen our doors to the public to resume full patient care services as normal.
“We would like to thank our patients and local community for all their messages of support and cooperation at this time.
“We can also confirm that police were called shortly after yesterday’s suspected arson incident and a 53-year-old man has been detained under the Mental Health Act.”
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Thanks for the information. Just a small point, detention under the Mental Health Act, presumably Section 136, is not an arrest but a police power to take someone whom they suspect to be mentally and may or may not have committed a crime, to a place of safety, usually a psychiatric hospital where they may be detained. I hope I’m not being pedantic but as a former Approved Social Worker I don’t want people who need urgent help to feel they’ve necessarily been arrested, although I don’t dispute criminal charges could arise in situations like this.
Thank Goodness that the fire was put out quickly.
Let’s hope that any suspect sufffering from mental illness receives the help they need.