Boyd Rowe, CEO of the Labrador Grenfell Health Authority, says the patient didn't intend to start the fire while using matches in the hospital's psychiatric room. (CBC)

Mental health activists in Newfoundland and Labrador say the public needs more information about how a patient in a locked psychiatric room was able to start a fire in a Happy Valley-Goose Bay hospital.

No one was injured in the incident Wednesday, but hospital staff and patients were forced to leave the Labrador Health Centre after flames spread to several rooms.

Jan Diamond, spokesman for Consumers' Health Awareness Network of Newfoundland and Labrador (CHANNAL), wants to know why a patient with matches was in a locked room reserved for psychiatric patients.

"What really gets me about that is: if that had been me, and I was unwell and I didn't have my pockets cleared out, I'd be left to do some damage that nobody would have noticed," Diamond said.

Diamond also wants to know why the public wasn't notified about the fire until Friday after members of the media began asking questions.

"Through the use of matches, the patient being neglectful, caused a fire," said Boyd Rowe, CEO of the Labrador Grenfell Health Authority.

Rowe said the patient was not admitted to the hospital for mental health reasons and didn't intend to set a fire.