ON THE EVE of the fifth anniversary of the Penhallow Hotel fire, the family of a pensioner who was killed have said this is the year they will try to move on.
Sue Harper said the grief of losing her aunt Joan would never go away, but a family visit to the memorial stone in Newquay later this summer would "symbolise" a new start. Meanwhile, Cornwall's fire chief has outlined the huge strides made to improve fire safety in the county's hotels over the past five years.
Holidaymakers Joan Harper, 80, Monica Hughes, 86, and her son Peter Hughes, 43, were trapped in the 54-bedroom hotel when fire ripped through it just after midnight on August 18, 2007.
Sue Harper, from Stoke-on-Trent, told the Cornish Guardian: "Memories of the loss of our aunt are still fresh and feelings of disbelief and grief never go away. In past years we have marked the anniversary of the tragedy by visiting the site in Newquay, and more recently the beautiful memorial stone.
"However, this year we have decided not to mark the anniversary of Aunt Joan's death, but rather to celebrate the wonderful times we spent together. We will do this by visiting the memorial stone to lay flowers on what would have been her 86th birthday, September 3. To us this will symbolise our starting to move on, even though we can never forget."
More than 100 firefighters were brought in to tackle the 30ft high flames, believed to have been sparked by an arsonist in the bar of the Island Crescent hotel. No one has been charged with starting the blaze, but the hotel's owner, O&C Holdsworth Ltd, was fined £80,000 in May 2011 for failing to provide adequate alarms and smoke detectors.
A police spokesman confirmed this week that the investigation remained open and detectives would investigate any new information.
Des Tidbury, Cornwall's chief fire officer, said the tragedy had "focused the hotel industry on the importance of proper fire safety management", and a number of measures had been introduced since 2007.
Two new aerial ladder platforms had been bought, one for Newquay and one for Truro, he said. The lack of specialist vehicles drew criticism in the wake of the tragedy.
He said Newquay now had 24/7 fire cover between May and September, when the influx of tourists swells the town's population from around 20,000 to 120,000.
Mr Tidbury said the service was now undertaking around 1,300 fire safety audits of businesses every year.
Most of these – 80 per cent – were aimed at "sleeping risks" such as hotels, care homes and hospitals.
There was also a targeted inspection programme aimed specifically at hotels, hostels, B&Bs and surf lodges. If they found cause for concern, fire service bosses had the power to increase inspections, limit the use of the premises or even close them down altogether.
Mrs Harper expressed concern that hotel-owners might still not be listening to fire safety messages, but Mr Tidbury said owners had reacted positively to the workshops that had been held over recent years.
"We try to build up relationships with businesses so they're very clear as to what the requirements of fire safety are," he said. "The Penhallow fire focused the hotel industry."
The Penhallow site has been earmarked for six four-bedroom townhouses.
