Unknown persons broke into the old nurses’ kitchen at the rear of the ground floor, and set alight two bundles of roofing insulation mats in a room used for storing old hospital equipment.

The arsonists also turned on all the hospital fire hose reels on levels two and three, flooding the top levels.

The building is condemned, and, Fire and Rescue NSW said, unfortunately frequented by looters.

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Two units from the local Fire and Rescue NSW station arrived at the scene around 8.30, and spent the next three hours fighting to put out the blaze. 

Wearing breathing apparatus to cope with the strong, pungent smoke, the firemen pulled the bundles of smouldering insulation through the old dining room windows.

The mats were wet down and put into skip bins.

The fire also burnt out flooring, making it unsteady for the firemen to enter the room. Hospital workers supplied old painters’ planks for them to cross the holes in the floor.

Inverell Fire and Rescue sent down a fire engine in case other fires broke out in town.