[Margaret Pilkington]

some other considerations that I think should be looked at are:-
*acquainting guests with 'what to do in an Emergency'
I know that on every coach tour I have gone on, the duty manager has come on board the coach and told us about meal times, but I cannot recall once being told of safety or security measures. Yes, I know there are notes on every bedroom door, but you cannot guarantee that they will be read.
I am afraid that most people think that incidents such as this one only happen to 'other people'.
* People who would require assistance in an emergency should be identified....either at the start of the holiday or better still, on the booking form......they should have something to hang outside their room so that they could be sought out and assisted to vacate the building.
* there should be enough staff on duty at night to cover such incidents...especially if the people requiring assistance are identified at the outset.
* Hotels should be required by law to undergo yearly inspections by the fire brigade to make sure the premises meet with all the requirements of a large scale evacuation.......I know the regulations regarding this have just recently changed so that hotels are allowed to monitor their own premises......I fear this is wrong.
* the fire service should be manned properly during the hours of 12mn and 8am.......if what I read in the papers is correct, all the firemen were paged to attend this incident.......and to have two(neighbouring towns) extension vehicles out of commission for repairs and have to rely on bringing an appliance fron Devon is ludicrous.

It is just very fortunate that there was not more loss of life.

I would say to anyone who is staying anywhere other than your own home....familiarise yourself with your surroundings, and plan how you would get out if there was an emergency.
Maybe some good will come out of this accident and maybe other places of residence will look a little more closely at their major incident plans.