Nine suffer effects of toxic smoke after Palma hotel fire

Firemen and police were alerted after thick black smoke was spotted coming from the basement area at about 10.20am. Emergency services rushed to the scene where fire officers believed the likely source of the blaze was one of the hotel's central heating boilers. The toxic fumes adversely affected nine people, four hotel workers, four clients - one of them a four-year-old child. The ninth was a local resident. Medical attention was given at the scene although some victims were later taken for further care in hospital.

So serious was the effect of the smoke that an Emergency Health Assessment group (SSG) had to declare the area as being of immediate risk to public health. It was at first thought that it would be necessary to evacuate a municipalchildren's nursery situated alongside the hotel, but the swift action of firemen in stamping out the blaze rendered it unnecessary.