Inquest into Newquay blaze deaths

May 28 2009 by James Cartledge, Birmingham Mail

TWO workers at a hotel which was destroyed in a blaze, killing three guests from the Midlands, have denied knowing how it started.

Joan Harper, 80, Peter Hughes, 43, and his mother Monica Hughes, 86, all from Staffordshire, died in the blaze at the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall, in August 2007.

Porters Christopher Rollason and David Read told the inquest they were both asleep in their staff flats when the fire broke out at the hotel 40 yards away.

Mr Rollason said he was woken by a man’s voice shouting for help and he sounded “very frightened”.

He said he then called the fire brigade from his flat.

The coroner, Emma Carlyon, asked Mr Rollason: “Do you know how this fire could have started?” He replied: “I don’t know.”

Ms Carlyon asked Mr Read: “Have you ever been involved with arson?”

“No,” he said.

PC Gemma Rail, the first police officer to arrive at the Penhallow, told the inquest it had been a scene of “total chaos”.

She said she had left the hotel just half an hour before after investigating reports of a burglary.

The inquest continues.