Fire safety update and next steps
On Thursday 1 May, a fire broke out in the linen room on the ground floor of the Mary Stanford Wing at St Mary’s Hospital. This led to the evacuation of three inpatient wards, affecting 35 patients, as well as the day surgery unit, Lindo Wing, pharmacy, and outpatient areas. The response across the hospital was exceptional, with teams working quickly and collaboratively to maintain safety and minimise disruption to patient care.
The cause of the fire was used linen overheating in a small storeroom on a very hot day. While this is a rare occurrence, we have put additional measures in place to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
The incident also highlighted gaps in our fire safety planning and training, and this has now been confirmed by London Fire Brigade following their full, post-incident inspection which concluded at the end of June. They have identified a number of actions that we need to take to be completed by June 2026. These actions are contained in an enforcement notice from the London Fire Brigade which state what improvements are needed by when.
The improvements we need to make, are:
- addressing gaps in our command and control and fire risk assessment processes
- resolving maintenance issues with fire doors and compartmentation
- improving fire safety training across all our sites
We have already made a start on these improvements and are aiming to have completed our comprehensive, improvement action plan by the end of January 2026.
Our action plan includes:
- Rolling out an enhanced training programme across our sites, tailored to staff roles and responsibilities.
- Reviewing and testing all fire alarm systems, extinguishers, and compartmentation to ensure full compliance and functionality - over and above our regular programme of testing.
- Undertaking additional fire risk assessments to make sure we have identified all vulnerabilities and that they are fully addressed in our response plans.
- Regular executive-level review of additional measures to make sure our fire planning continues to be as comprehensive and up to date as possible
We understand this may be concerning for patients and staff, and want to reassure everyone that we have already taken a number of immediate actions to ensure the safety of our estates and have a plan to deliver all the improvements.
