Hotel evacuation

Over 300 tourists, many of them British and of all ages, were evacuated from the Hotel Rey Don Jaime in Santa Ponsa on Friday night after a suspected short circuit started a fire in a storeroom on the first floor of the hotel. The fire started shortly after 10pm and although the material in the room was inflammable, within minutes dense smoke had engulfed the first floor. With little hesitation, the management evacuated the hotel with most of the guests in their rooms. The well organised evacuation was carried out very quickly with the only incident involving a few “nervous” holidaymakers. Within minutes the local police, Guardia Civil, Civil Defence and fire services were at the scene as the emergency operation swung in to action. The dense smoke prevented firemen from gaining access to the fire, but they managed to get to the blaze via a balcony and extinguish the fire quickly. Police and fire inspectors checked the whole building before the guests were allowed to return to the rooms by around 1am yesterday morning.