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No injuries reported after fires at Victoria General Hospital

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No injuries were reported after a pair of fires broke out at Victoria General Hospital on Tuesday morning.

The fires were contained to two rooms in the general medicine unit on the hospital's fourth floor, which sustained minor damage but remained open during the incident.

"Thanks to the quick actions of staff, the situation was contained and the fire was extinguished with minimal damage," a spokesperson for the Vancouver Island health authority said in a statement emailed to CTV News.

"No patients or staff were injured, patients were not evacuated and the hospital, including the fourth floor unit, remains fully operational," the statement said.

Firefighters and police attended the scene shortly after 11 a.m. following reports of flames inside the hospital complex.

View Royal Fire Department Chief Paul Hurst says a preliminary investigation indicates at least one of the fires was intentionally set by a patient.

"It's the first fire I've responded to in probably 30 years at Victoria General," Hurst told reporters outside the hospital. "There is no room to hesitate in a building like this where you have people who are vulnerable."

Fire crews remained on scene through the afternoon to ventilate smoke from the hospital.

"Patients in the direct vicinity were briefly moved out of the area while fire crews cleared the area of smoke," the Island Health spokesperson said.

West Shore RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Nancy Saggar says the department is "not an anticipating any criminal charges" as a result of the fires.

  

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