Hospital fire call was 'false alarm'
Fire department dispatched to Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on Tuesday morning
Fredericton firefighters were dispatched to an uptown hospital Tuesday morning after receiving a report of smoke in a room, but it turned out to be a false alarm, says a fire department official.
The Fredericton Fire Department released a short statement through social media at 8:05 a.m. Tuesday about a call a short time before at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital.
“Just before 8 a.m., the Fredericton Fire Department responded to reports of smoke in a room at the Doctor Everett Chalmers Hospital,” it said.
“The incident is under control, and units are being released from the scene.”
Assistant deputy fire chief Dave McKinley said firefighters learned some routine work was misinterpreted as a sign of a potential fire.
“As it turned out, there were workers in the basement doing some grinding and staff thought they smelled smoke and called it in, so it was a false alarm,” he wrote in an email to the Fredericton Independent on Tuesday morning.
The department took the call seriously, though.
“It was a full response with five fire trucks and 20 firefighters for a report of smoke,” McKinley said.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.