Man held after CCTV appeal over hospital blazes

He was detained in Kent yesterday afternoon and was last night in custody at a police station in the county.

The arrest came shortly
after police released CCTV images of a man they wanted to speak to in connection with the
fires at both Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury, at about 3pm on Thursday and Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham, which are believed to be
linked, a police spokesman
said.

Officers attended Kent and Canterbury Hospital with firefighters to investigate the cause of
the blaze and a theft from the
hospital restaurant, which happened at the same time. No one was injured in the fires at either hospital.

The fire at Kent and Canterbury Hospital is similar to a fire at Crawley Hospital, West Sussex, on Tuesday. Patients and visitors were evacuated because of the blaze in a sixth-floor store cupboard on Comet ward.

No one was hurt but a small amount of cash was stolen from a till in the hospital restaurant
during the fire, Sussex Police
said.

Detectives are examining whether this blaze, which took place at 1.30pm, is linked to another three in Brighton.

The first suspected arson case in the city happened at Royal Albion Hotel in Old Steine at 2pm on Sunday, the second one was at noon the following day at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and the third was at the Sea Life Centre, also on Monday, at about 4.30pm.

The fires were all small but when staff returned to the buildings, cash had vanished from tills, police said.

Officers in both Kent and Sussex attended a number of addresses including a hotel in Brighton on Sunday, the Brighton Dome, Brighton Sea Life Centre and Hilton hotel in Gatwick on Monday, Crawley Hospital on Tuesday, Medway Maritime Hospital on Wednesday, and Kent and Canterbury Hospital on Thursday, a Kent Police spokesman said.

Det Supt Mick Judge, from
the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate, said: “As yet the
fires have all been determined as deliberate but small and contained, and no one has been harmed.

“Our investigation team is following up a number of lines of inquiry and we will continue to work closely with our colleagues at Sussex Police, the Fire and Rescue Service and the National Health Service to identify whoever is responsible.

“We have also been working closely with NHS Protect which has ensured alerts and updates have been circulated rapidly to a large number of hospitals in the target areas.”

Anyone with information can call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.