ONE of the firefighters who helped save a hospital from disaster has revealed how close the blaze was to spreading to rooms where patients were having surgery.

Watch manager Steve May led the first crew to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester and said flames were directly threatening the building housing operating theatres.

Fire crews had to blast water on to that building while two patients were undergoing emergency surgery yards away. They were moved to another part of the hospital, where their operations were completed successfully.

Nobody was hurt in the fire on Friday.

Mr May, who is based at Winchester fire station, said: “One priority was to get everybody out; the second was the MRI; it’s a massive magnet, with helium cooling gas and high voltage and it was unable to be turned off. It was something you could not go near.

“The staff said there were two lifecritical operations going on in the main building. If you stood outside the theatres you would have seen flames coming up the windows towards you.

“The ops were life-critical and I was asked whether they were safe because they had to carry on, they couldn’t stop one of them straight away. We had to make every effort to stop the fire from spreading by water protection against the building to stop it from catching.”

The fire started in the building housing the MRI and CT scanners and the dangerous gases inside meant the crews could not get into the room itself.

Mr May added: “We had to fight the fire from outside. We knew the risks but we had the priority of stopping the fire from spreading.

At its peak about 100 firefighters were tackling the blaze and successfully stopped the spread.

An investigation into the cause has been delayed by safety fears.

As reported, the hospital has drafted in mobile CT and MRI scanners which are operating out of Queens Road car park. All other departments are now open as normal.