Hotel fire causes $20,000 damage

A FIRE at the Bridgeport Hotel in Murray Bridge caused up to $20,000 damage yesterday afternoon.
The fire began at about 3pm and burnt for up to an hour, forcing staff and patrons to be evacuated from the building.

It is believed the source of the fire was a compressor in one of the hotel’s cool rooms.

Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) firefighter Sue Regnier said the fire cut out power to the building, making it hard for MFS and Country Fire Service firefighters, who had to go in by torchlight, to navigate their way through the smoke.

She said it was difficult to know whether the fire was in the cool room connected to the bottle shop or the kitchen.

To cope with the smoke, firefighters were fitted with breathing apparatus before entering the building.

From the street, a light amount of smoke could be seen coming out of the building.

Fire investigators will not be called to the Bridgeport Hotel because the amount of damage is too small.

Murray Bridge police also attended the incident.

Devon news

SIXTY firefighters are currently battling a blaze at a disused hotel in Ilfracombe.

Initially four engines were mobilised to the Berkeley Hotel on Wilder Road at 5.30pm after reports came through of smoke coming from the property.

But on arrival Watch Commander Webb requested a further appliance, at which time a fire engine from Combe Martin and an Incident Command Vehicle from Ilfracombe were tasked to the scene.

Within a short time a request for a further four fire engines was received from the incident - two appliances from Barnstaple and two from Lynton were sent.

A spokesman for Devon and Somerset Fire Service said: "Currently there are eight fire engines, a hydraulic platform and an Incident Command Vehicle in attendance with a total of sixty fire fighters on scene.

"The fire is affecting all four floors of the unoccupied hotel.

Fire delays new Hotel du Vin in Newcastle
(27 November 2007 11:20)
A major fire at the Hotel Du Vin hotel development in Newcastle last week will delay rather than kill off the multi-million pound project, the group has confirmed.

The blaze at the former Allan House on Newcastle’s Quayside will push the 42 bedroom hotel project back from targeted opening next spring to the end of 2008.

A spokesman for the company praised local fire fighters, who had to contend with strong winds, and said without their quick intervention the building would undoubtedly have been a write off.

“The fire is a blow to Robert Cook (chief executive of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin) as he launched his first Malmaison as general manager in Newcastle back in 1997 and has therefore been closely involved in this project,” he said.No one was hurt in the fire and police are not believed to be treating it as suspicious. One theory is that the fire may have been started in avertedly by someone living rough and sheltering in the building, which is under renovation.

The group will open a Hotel du Vin in Dorset’s