A fire in an air conditioning chiller at a London hospital has highlighted the importance of ensuring regular maintenance of building services plant, particularly in the light of anticipated future cuts in public spending.

The water-cooled screw chiller was serving critical areas such as operating theatres in the hospital, as well as providing comfort cooling for patients and staff. The fire broke out in the chiller’s control enclosure, destroying a section of the system and putting the air conditioning plant out of action.

LH Plc, the Wimbledon-based chiller and air conditioning specialist, was called in to investigate the cause and repair the chiller. The company’s Andy Boatwright said: “Fortunately, the fire was contained and localised, and didn’t spread beyond the chiller plant, but it could have been extremely serious”.

He added: “It illustrates the importance of ensuring regular maintenance, particularly in relation to equipment that serves critical or high value areas, such as hospitals, financial dealing rooms or computer centres – where it is not just people’s comfort that is at stake if the system goes down”.

LH uses a thermal imaging camera as part of chiller maintenance to identify “hot-spots” in plant that may indicate problems that, if left untreated, could lead to future breakdown.

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