A PATIENT says his life was put in danger after a curtain was set alight at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Michael Barrow, 50, of Magpie Close, Burnley, was staying on ward C7, a six-bed general ward on Monday, when a fellow patient set fire to a dividing curtain in the early hours.

Mr Barrow said he had earlier heard the patient call the emergency services saying there was a fire at the hospital.

He said: “I told the nurse and she took the phone off him and told the operator that he was confused.

“I heard him talking to himself and I could hear him playing with a lighter. He said he was going to blow the hospital up.

“When I looked up he had set fire to the dividing curtains. I could see the flame and the smoke.

“I jumped out of bed and grabbed hold of the curtains. Thankfully it had only burned about two or three inches of the curtain so I put it out with my hands.”

Mr Barrow, 50, who was not injured, said he was terrified by the ordeal.

He said: “The nurses had to wrestle the patient to get the lighter off him. He was being very abusive and security were called.”

Mr Barrow, who had been in hospital since April 12 with an undiagnosed problem, discharged himself later that day, fearing for his safety.

He said: “If I hadn't still been awake that whole curtain would have gone up in flames and the whole ward could have set alight. He put the people on the ward at risk. It was terrifying.”

Mr Barrow said the patient who started the fire was taken into a single room for the rest of the night.

Lynn Wissett, deputy chief executive for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We can confirm that there was minor incident in the early hours of Monday. This is now currently being investigated.

“Staff were aware of the issue and took measures to ensure that other patients’ safety wasn’t compromised.”