Patients able to return to Wellington Children's Hospital

February 13, 2024
Fire trucks outside the Wellington Children's Hospital this morning.

Patients are now able to return to Wellington Children's Hospital after it was evacuated this morning due to a possible gas leak.

Firefighters were alerted to a sprinkler activated alarm shortly before 9am this morning.

At the height of the incident there were 12 fire trucks at the scene.

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said specialised gas detection had picked up readings indicative of fire combustion, but no sign of fire was found. There was also no gas detected.

"At this stage crews are unable to determine what caused the sprinkler to activate," they said.

"It is now safe for people to return to the building, and the building has been handed back to the hospital."

Earlier, Wellington Assistant Commander Martin Wilby said if there was a fire it would be very small.

He also said around 30 patients were evacuated.

Te Whatu Ora's Capital, Coast & Hutt Valley's Jamie Duncan earlier said the hospital had been evacuated as a precaution.

It came after a possible gas leak was discovered in the building — the activation of fire alarms alerted staff.

"All patients are in the process of being transferred to appropriate clinical spaces across Wellington Regional Hospital, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand are onsite as a precaution," Duncan earlier said.

"There is no risk to patients, visitors, or staff."

Patient's father describes evacuation

Sam, whose son is undergoing treatment at the hospital, said an alarm had gone off this morning.

He thought it was one of his son's monitors but remarked it "didn't seem right". He said he'd gone out into the corridor and had smelt gas.

Sam said the sprinklers started to go off and that's when he decided to unhook his son, grab him and leave the hospital.

From out of town, he said all he'd grabbed was his son and their phones.

Sam said he'd just been thinking "get him out. Get out... Just go. Get the boy and go."

His son was now being looked after in another part of the hospital.

"They're pretty good people here, he's well looked after."

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