The fire that sparked a major incident at Southampton General Hospital on Sunday morning was caused by an electrical fault, it has been confirmed by the hospital.
A major incident was declared on Sunday after a blaze broke out in the west wing at around 5:30am on Sunday with more than 100 firefighters tackling the fire.
A spokesperson for University Hospital Southampton said on Tuesday: “The hospital remains on major incident today as we continue our response to the fire in the west wing of Southampton General Hospital on Sunday morning.
Fire damage at University Hospital Southampton. (Image: UHS)
“The building has now been handed back to the Trust by the fire service, who have concluded their investigation and confirmed the cause of the fire was electrical.”
The blaze led to a significant emergency response, with hundreds of patients moved to safety as smoke spread through parts of the west wing.
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The spokesperson continued: “A number of our wards remain closed due to fire, smoke or water damage following the incident, with 200 bed spaces currently unavailable.
“In the immediate response, 502 patients were quickly moved to safe areas across our hospital site by staff.
“Until Sunday evening, around 200 of those patients had to be cared for in public spaces, including corridors, as we worked to discharge patients, transfer some to other hospitals and repurpose other areas of our estate to enable us to continue to provide safe care.”
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Despite the disruption, the hospital has confirmed that services are gradually resuming.
The spokesperson added: “As we work to recover following the fire, thanks to the dedication and hard work of our staff, we have reopened our Emergency Department and resumed a limited amount of elective surgery, prioritising the most urgent cases.
“The majority of outpatient appointments are going ahead and we are asking patients to continue to attend the hospital as planned unless they have been contacted directly.”
Efforts are also underway to reunite patients with belongings left behind during the evacuation and those who believe they might be missing belongings are asked to call the Patient and Family Support Hub on 0800 4840135 to arrange collection.