Hundred flee fire as hotel is devastated
Feb 1 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal
ONE of the region’s best-known hotels has been devastated by a fire that caused huge traffic problems for commuters yesterday.
The Imperial Swallow Hotel in Jesmond Road, Newcastle, was badly damaged, with the fire service saying nearly every room had been affected.
About 100 hotel guests had to file on to the street in strong winds and heavy rain before dawn, while the closure of Jesmond Road later caused lengthy traffic tailbacks.
Fire crews were called at 5.30am and it took more than three hours to conduct a full search and safely clear the hotel guests from the building.
At the fire’s peak, there were 66 firefighters tackling the inferno and 17 engines.
The fire is believed to have started in the kitchen before ripping through the rest of the hotel. No one was hurt.
With traffic wardens feeding rush-hour vehicles through Sandyford, there were long tailbacks and the road was not fully re-opened until 3.15pm, more than nine hours after the fire started.
Fire crews worked in conditions Tyne and Wear Fire watch manager David Lynsley described as “extremely hard”.
He said: “The whole hotel has been affected by the fire. It’s gone up to the rooms and it’s made its way to the roof.
“At least 100 people were safely evacuated and all were accounted for. Some of them came back briefly to collect some of their possessions.
“The fire completely gutted the kitchen. We used chainsaws to cut away the floorboards and walls to stop the fire spreading.
“It was extremely hard work in these conditions. It’s a large building and there are a lot of corridors and the visibility was almost down to zero.” Alan Todd, 57, an engineer at neighbouring Arriva transport services, said: “I got the Metro and when I got to work at 7.10am, there were flames leaping through the roof of the hotel through a hole.
“When I came round the front of the building, there were people here from the hotel and we gave them cups of tea.
“One woman was wrapped in a blanket to protect her because it was really cold. They were lifting firemen up to the roof and they were spraying water through the hole.”
Arriva provided a bus to ferry most of the guests to the Swallow’s sister hotel in Gateshead. Others were sent across the city to different hotels.
Ella Affleck, 66, who lives in nearby Hutton Terrace, said: “I was woken up by the noise of sirens, because there were quite a few of them. It was between 5am and 5.30am.
“I couldn’t see much smoke, but the traffic on the road was really bad. The road is normally quite quiet, and I usually go out, but I decided to stay in because of the traffic.”
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Fire facts
122
100
66
17
9hrs 45mins
3hrs 10mins
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Director praises great job by brigade
Peter Bach, operations director for Swallow Hotels, visited the building to assess the extent of the damage.
He said: “The actual damage is quite shocking. But for the fire brigade it would have been a lot worse.
“They did a great job and they said they managed to contain it to the middle of the building. I’ve spoken to the investigating officer and they have identified that the fire started in an area in the kitchen and then it just spread up.
“The kitchen is gutted, the restaurant is badly damaged and there were a couple of middle rooms that were damaged.
“But there’s a whole concrete wing that is completely untouched.”
Mr Bach could not say how much the damage would cost.
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