The devastation left by hospital smoker’s blaze
NEWLY RELEASED images have shown the charred, smoke-damaged results of a fire caused by a patient smoking in his bed at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW).
As first reported in yesterday’s Echo, Lee Williams caused almost £50,000 of damage by lighting up a cigarette while wearing an oxygen mask.
Now, images released by the Crown Prosecution Service have shown the charred bedsheets and smoke-damaged scene in the room where he was being treated.
They reveal the seriousness of the blaze, which sparked an evacuation of part of Wales’ largest hospital.
As previously reported, the 44-year-old from Treherbert had ignored repeated warnings not to smoke in his hospital bed.
Cardiff Crown Court was told Williams had been an inpatient at UHW – also commonly known as Heath Hospital – for about two weeks before the incident on May 8 last year.
The previous day a nurse had found him smoking as he appeared to be asleep. The court heard she believed he was smoking synthetic drug Spice, due to the state he was in, and put his smoking materials away in a cupboard.
But despite several subsequent warnings not to smoke, a fire broke out in Williams’ cubicle on the C5 ward on May 8.
Staff who rushed to the scene found a blaze spreading quickly across his bed. Williams suffered mouth injuries and a “blackened nose” as a result of the fire.
He needed emergency treatment and was connected to a defibrillator.
Several staff members who rushed into the smoke-filled room had to receive treatment due to smoke inhalation and shock.
The court heard the damage meant the ward was forced to close for two weeks, and 38 patients had to be moved.
The court was told an investigation revealed “smoking while using an oxygen mask” was the “probable cause” of the fire, which caused £47,500 worth of damage.
Judge David Wynn Morgan told Williams: “You put at risk the life of the doctor, the two nurses, the security staff who put out the fire, and the 38 patients who had to be evacuated in the thick smoke.”
Williams, who admitted assaulting an emergency worker and arson with intent to endanger life in relation to those matters, was also sentenced to separate charges relating to possession of an air rifle at his home, despite being banned from having one.
In total, he was sentenced to five years in prison, of which he must serve half before being released on licence.