Penhallow inquest returns open verdict

The last four weeks has seen the inquest into the deaths of the three victims of the horrific Penhallow Hotel fire in Newquay. The tragedy happened at the height of the holiday season in August 2007 and I blogged about it at the time. Now I've not had the time to follow the minutiae of the proceedings at Truro but the coroner Dr Emma Carlyon told the jury that they had to pass an 'open verdict' notwithstanding a lot of evidence of this being an arson attack. It's the lack of absolute certainty as to this being the case that was the determining factor here apparently.

So relatives of the deceased have yet to get final closure: police have a prime suspect but don't have the necessary proof to take things further at the moment. There had been questions about the response of Cornwall's fire brigade to the incident - they seem to have been exonerated as to the failure to save the three who perished, such was the ferocity of the blaze and the speed at which it took hold they had absolutely no chance of saving the one man and two elderly ladies.

There had been a change in the law whereby premises such as the Penhallow could make a self assessment as regards fire risk and precautions rather than someone from the fire brigade coming round and ordering certain actions to be taken. It seems that the Penhallow had been repeatedly advised that the fire precautions were inadequate. By citing Rule 22 of the Coroners Rules it was possible for some witnesses to avoid answering questions where there may have been legal consequences at a later date. One thing that could have been done by the Holdsworth Hotel group, owners of the Penhallow, was the placing of smoke alarms in each bedroom - remember the fire broke out in the early hours of the morning when a lot of folk would have been asleep. In the great scheme of things how much would it have cost to carry out this relatively straightforward procedure. When I moved to this cottage 14 years ago I put a smoke alarm in on the very first day, it's that important. It's a battery type and it's essential that one uses the Duracell sort of battery, some of the ordinary batteries are at risk of flattening before one is fully awake.

Mention must be made of the bravery of two sisters, Kirsty and Emma Schofield, who ran along the corridors knocking on doors and helping people to get out. It's quite possible that the death toll could have been worse but for their heroic efforts.

In writing about the Penhallow blaze before I mentioned that I had something close to a phobia about being in any location where I am squashed in with my fellow human beings be it a hotel, sports stadium or whatever. I don't like huge crowds anyway and for me when it comes to venues "small is beautiful" every time.

Buy an apartment: the car comes free

Last Saturday I wrote about estate agents having to be more inventive in the way they do things now that there is a contraction in the housing market. I didn't expect to report on an example of an agent doing something out of the ordinary quite so soon!

What this is about is an enticement to buy a posh new apartment in Newquay. Bradleys are the estate agents concerned and they are having a day where, if you commit to purchase on that very day you will receive a new car when the completion goes through!! Depending on which apartment you go for you could become the lucky owner of a Smart car or a luxury Mercedes Benz! It's all about injecting real urgency into the sale of these expensive new properties of course and it will be interesting to see how effective all this is and what other wheezes estate agents try.

Please note that I'm not a paid publicist for any estate agent and I shan't be purchasing an apartment in Newquay. Actually I'm quite content with my existing characterful car anyway!

Newquay's £1,000,000 apartment sales

It's amazing to see just how many property sales in Devon and Cornwall top the £million mark these days. I can understand it when the sale in question is for a really grand house with acres of land but get slightly bemused when apartments, admittedly with sea views, make this sort of price. In terms of price per square foot we may not be quite in the same league as Sandbanks on that narrow spit of land between Poole Harbour and Poole Bay in Dorset but certain spots in my two counties are trying to catch up.

I hear that Cornwall's Newquay has now joined the £million league with the sale of a couple of penthouse apartments in a development with views over Fistral Beach. In fact the prices were £1.2 and £1.3 million if the report is correct and they haven't been completed yet. No doubt they will be very nice but worth that sort of money? Anyway there we are: a home is worth what you are prepared to pay for it I guess. As for me I'm happy to stay with my little Cornish cottage.

World championship heading for Newquay

Great News for Cornwall is the fact that Newquay has fought off international competition to host 'Rescue 2010 - the World Surf Life Saving Championships'. Six thousand or so competitors from 55 countries will descend on the area in June/July 2010, a great opportunity to publicise Cornwall and show the world what we can do. Apparently a temporary swimming pool will be constructed at Fistral Beach so that all the events in these championships can be held in the same area.

The cost of the whole thing will be about £6 million which is lose change compared with the ever increasing expense of London's Olympic Games; I wish France had won the latter by the way, I can see a lot of lottery money being diverted to the Olympics which should be used on other things.

I am particularly pleased for Jonathan Ball who spearheaded the case for Cornwall. Jonathan, a well regarded architect based at Bude, was one of the instigators of The Eden Project. Sadly he fell out with fellow entrepreneur Tim Smit and his contribution has been somewhat airbrushed from the story of Eden. But he was all smiles when the news was announced about Newquay's success.

Here's wishing the organisers all the best for summer 2010!

Problems highlighted by Penhallow fire

It's now well over two weeks since the terrible fire that destroyed Newquay's Penhallow Hotel and led to the deaths of three people. There has been plenty of comment since about the state of the fire service in Cornwall: these initially centred around the fact that Newquay depends on retained firemen rather than the station being manned 24/7 especially during the summer months and on the fact that both of Cornwall's turntable ladders were out of action meaning that they had to use one from Plymouth. Now it's not clear so far as I can find out whether these 'deficiencies' were in way contributory to the tragic loss of life.

Newquay's resident population is about 20,000, in the height of the season it could be 5 times that. So we have a situation whereby in the winter having a retained service to man the two fire engines seems almost adequate whereas in the summer with a population more akin to that of Exeter it would appear that far more cover is needed. But hold on a moment, comparing Newquay and Exeter is like comparing apples with oranges. The population of Newquay might rocket in the summer but the number of properties to protect is the same. However as Newquay has a high number of fairly tall properties used as guest houses and hotels then it could be construed that they pose a proportionately greater risk. But there again Exeter has much more in the way of industrial sites with the problems they can pose. An important point is that you can't reasonably draw firemen from other stations to boost the numbers at Newquay in the summer if it was to have permanently manned crews. So far as the Penhallow event was concerned there were only enough firefighters available to man one of the two engines and this brings to the fore a point I really want to make - for 99.9% of the time we get away with a facility that is underfunded such as the fire service because major fire incidents in our area our rare. But this fire has certainly flagged up the problems of cost cutting. It is a mammoth task for the cash strapped County to make a judgment regarding the size of the fire budget and whether economies can be made.

Another problem on that dreadful night which didn't feature in earlier news reports was the fact that the fire hydrants closest to the fire were inoperable and so water had to be drawn from some distance away. Now this really does bother me and should concern everyone. Whereas at one time the fire service would do all the regular maintenance checks on the county's hydrants nowadays this is done to a strict specification by a private company. It would seem that not only is there a problem with silt build up in the hydrant but that the salt air in a place such as Newquay can cause corrosion to a degree that the hydrants can't be used. This is a ridiculous situation and needs quick resolution. Apart from the time delay in finding a hydrant that worked reports suggest that there was a substantial loss of pressure because of the distance the water had to traverse. Our decision makers have a lot to think about, certainly the planned downgrading of the stations at Falmouth and Camborne away from 24 hour cover has been put on hold.

Penhallow Hotel fire - 3 deaths confirmed

When I blogged about the horrendous fire that destroyed the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay at the weekend I had hoped that the then two people missing might still turn up. Sadly that was not to be. Fire and police investigators at the site have found the remains of human bones in two separate locations in the rubble. The police are treating the area as a serious crime scene: this doesn't mean that the fire was the result of any sort of crime necessarily, I think it is an indication of the obvious seriousness of the event and that the most thorough and detailed forensic investigation is taking place.

Understandably when there have been fatalities one forgets those who have been injured. Well there is good news on that front - the four of those hurt who had to be hospitalised are said to be improving.

Fire at Newquay hotel - 1 dead, 4 missing

In the very early hours of Saturday morning fire broke out at the Penhallow Hotel in Island Crescent close to the sea front in Newquay. The fire developed very rapidly through the four storey Edwardian building, so much so that the building appears to be almost completely gutted. Part of the building has collapsed and specialist contractors have been called in to demolish some of the outside wall deemed structurally unsafe.

Sadly one person died from either falling or jumping from the second floor; additionally there are another four people currently unaccounted for. Such was the ferocity of the fire and the danger of entering the building that at the time of writing the fire service have been unable to verify if there are any bodies inside.

There were over 80 guests plus 3 staff and a coach driver in the hotel at the time according to reports. A suggestion that many of the visitors were a party of senior citizens could hint at a lack of mobility for some in getting out. Members of the public heroically helped in the evacuation.

I'm not sure if it's a personal phobia but I'm not comfortable in big hotels or any indoor building where large numbers congregate. Similarly an outdoor venue where people are jammed together. I like to have some adjacent empty space I can move into should the need arise. I have been in a very small block of flats where a fire occurred, my life certainly wasn't in danger but I have a healthy respect for fire.

If I go on holiday I wouldn't wish to stay in a large establishment even if money was no object. For me it would be self catering or a small B & B.