Chesterfield Royal Hospital marks 10 years since main entrance was destroyed in devastating fire

Ten years ago today, a major fire destroyed Chesterfield Royal Hospital’s main entrance and caused disruption to some services inside.
By Alana Roberts
Published 25th Jun 2021, 17:38 BST

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It was around 9.30pm when the blaze broke out in the hospital’s newsagents on June 25, 2011, as a result of an electrical fault in a fridge.

The fire – although restricted thanks to the automatic fire detectors on site and the quick mobilisation of firefighters to the incident – completely destroyed the main reception area and badly affected the A&E department and fracture clinics after spreading to the roof space.

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Classed as a ‘major incident’, it took four hours to get under control and saw emergency patients being diverted to other nearby hospitals.

Speaking at a press conference the following day, head of communications Sarah Turner-Saint, said: “The hospital will be in a better position later today to see how much we can reopen. In some areas communications have been knocked out, part of which involves the pharmacy, so that will present major difficulties.

"The main entrance will be closed for a substantial time - we have no idea when that will be up and running.

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"We appreciate there will be some inconvenience to patients, but we intend to keep that to a minimum and people will be on hand to help you get to where you need to be. Services may be at different parts of the site but we aim to keep things as close as possible."

Interior of main entrance of Chesterfield Royal Hospital after the fire on June 25, 2011Interior of main entrance of Chesterfield Royal Hospital after the fire on June 25, 2011
Interior of main entrance of Chesterfield Royal Hospital after the fire on June 25, 2011
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She added: "There is good news, the fire service has completed their investigation which began in the early hours and have pinpointed through CCTV that the fire began as a result of a fridge in the newsagents and transferred through.

"The construction of the entrance did its job and restricted the damage caused - it could have been a lot worse.

“Our Major Incident Plan had worked well, Everyone was fantastic and the team worked well. The Fire and Rescue Service did a sterling job, working extremely hard for 4 hours to make sure the fire was out”

The main entrance was rebuilt following the blaze, with Chesterfield Royal Hospital proudly reopening the site on May 8, 2012.

Marking the anniversary today, the hospital shared videos of aftermath of the fire on its Facebook page.

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