Hotel search delayed

The search for two people still missing after fire ripped through a seaside hotel has been delayed.

The Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall, was engulfed by flames just after midnight on Saturday and a 43-year-old man died after jumping from the second or third floor to escape.

Emergency workers are building a screen around the site of the hotel, which has been demolished into rubble eight feet deep.

Teams will then start looking for any more victims and also for evidence of the cause of the fire.

Superintendent John Green said: "We hope to start the search in the afternoon but it may be tomorrow morning.

"It depends when we can finish getting scaffolding up to put screens around the site."

Four people are in hospital after the blaze, three are in a stable condition and one is in a critical but stable condition.

On Saturday, 72 people who were evacuated from the building were returned home to the North West.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said lessons had to be learnt from the incident after it emerged that the fire service aerial platform had to travel 50 miles from Plymouth as the two normally based in Cornwall were being repaired.

The FBU also said they are very concerned about the levels of cover for the resort and revealed cuts in the service meant there were not enough firefighters to man a second pump when the fire broke out.

General secretary Matt Wrack said: "We know that the only two aerial appliances in Cornwall were out of action and an appliance had to come 50 miles from Devon.

"We have also been concerned at cuts in night cover. There were not enough crews in the area to man the second pump. It is dangerous not to have sufficient night time cover."

At its height, the fire was tackled by more than 100 firefighters and witnesses described flames shooting 30 feet from the roof and said they felt intense heat 100 yards away.

The Penhallow Hotel is owned by Holdsworth Hotels, which also has hotels in Torquay, Eastbourne and the Isle of Wight.

It is part of the Robinsons Holidays group, based in Blackburn, Lancashire.

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