Patients at Christchurch Hospital were ordered to wear masks and move to other areas after smoke spread through parts of the building following a fire this afternoon.

A Fire and Emergency spokeswoman said crews were alerted at 12.26pm after an automatic alarm was triggered, prompting a large emergency response.

Multiple fire crews attended the scene, including a command unit.

The Fire spokeswoman said firefighters located a fire in a power supply room, known as the UPS room.

The fire was extinguished and crews then moved into salvage operations.

A patient at the Emergency Department said “the staff are amazing at keeping people updated. I could smell the smoke as multiple fire and emergency services arrived.”

Another patient at the hospital told chrislynchmedia.com “we are on the 6th floor and we had to put on masks and move to a different area due to the smoke coming through the vents in our rooms.”

No one was injured and St John was not required.

Health New Zealand had not responded to media enquiries at the time of publication.