Hotel fire-nearly died - advice please!!

crusty_toenail

We traveled to a hotel in Gran Canaria as a family of 10 - 6 adults and 4 children. It was to be a holiday of a lifetime being the first time we had all been away together after a very challenging year for all of us.

The hotel rooms were clean and all appeared to be okay with this accommodation until Halloween night (we are not hard people to please!)

Shortly after 1am on 1 November 2013, my husband and I were woken up struggling to breathe, coughing and choking. We got out of bed, turned on the light and realised our bedroom was full of smoke, we could hardly see in front of us. The smoke was so pungent, like smoke from an electrical fire. We started to panic and the first thing I thought was our children who were sleeping in the kitchen/living room next door must be on fire! We opened the living room door, fearing for the worst, fearing they would be dead, literally shaking from head to toe. We realised this room too was filled with smoke but our children were waking up, albeit traumatised.:eek:

We quickly got the children and got out of the apartment. I could hear distant voices shouting 'fire' and right in front of our room there was a grate in the ground with thick smoke coming though it and rising in the air.

There was NO fire alarm going off and I feared for other residence on this floor. Our rooms were on the first floor, the ground floor being occupied by reception/kitchen/room for staff. My husband started to smash the fire alarm boxes outside the rooms on our floor, three it total, but the fire alarms were not going off. Some Scandinavian hotel residents had witnessed the fire and were starting to head up the stairs to knock on doors on the upper floors to get the people out. They also smashed a further eight fire alarm boxes but these fire alarms also did not sound.

The families in the rooms beside us whose rooms were also starting to fill up with smoke stated that if we hadn't have knocked on their door when we did they could have easily died of smoke inhalation, as they can also testify the fire alarm did NOT sound and their rooms were full of smoke, so bad that when they returned to get their stuff their clothes were smoke damaged and the rooms were totally smoked out.:eek:

Once we had gotten the residence of the first floor out of their rooms without the assistance of any hotel staff members we made our own way out of the hotel, my sister in law having to bump her son in a wheelchair down stairs by herself as her husband was assisting the other children. We made it down to the front reception desk and were surprised to see the receptionist on the phone.
We told him that our room was engulfed in smoke and some Scandinavian guests also told him they had witnessed a fire and had tried to extinguish it and that we were all trying to get people out of the building and that he needed to put the fire alarms on. He told us that there was no fire it was only smoke and refused to help get people out or put the fire alarm on.:mad:

We congregated at the front of the hotel witnessing smoke billowing out of the main reception area in total horror as it was at least 30 minutes until a fire alarm was put on, but this alarm seemed very quiet and residence from the upper floors didn't seem to be evacuating the hotel. The lights in the hotel went out and there was no emergency lighting, so guests were now coming down stairs in the dark and in the smoke, some guests were injured as a result of falling down the stairs.

The only people that seemed to be working that night were the receptionist and a security guard who entered the hotel with a mask and oxygen tank strapped to his back. The police and fire fighters arrived and were there for a while putting the fire out. On speaking to the manager of the hotel after the event he told us he had been in Las Palmas the night of the fire and that he was told by his staff that the security guards, staff members, police and fire fighters had got people out. This is not the truth and other witness statements to tour operators etc will state this is not the truth.

We were all told to wait in the hotel across the road from our hotel - Paradise Lago, Taurito and go to the sister hotel - Paradise Valle Taurito, were we had to lie on the floor for four hours being told there were no rooms available, even for our nephew in a wheelchair. When we were told it was now safe for us to all go back into the hotel. Families with children first!!:eek:

We couldn't believe we were being asked to go back into a hotel full of smoke, with no lighting and wet floors. We waded through the water on the floor, breathing in more smoke and when we got to our room opened the door and the receptionist and security guard went into the room, told us to open the windows, get our stuff and get out. We packed our stuff in the dark, in the smoke, coughing and probably still in shock and quickly got out, in amazement at our near brush with death. By this stage we had realised the extent of what had happened to us, and the other guests on the first floor beside us were amazed at the amount of smoke which had built up in their rooms also.

We had to beg for a room in the Paradise Valle for the duration of the morning. Nobody helped us from the Paradise Lago, we were totally on our own. Nobody asked if we needed medical assistance, nobody helped us with securing a new room - totally disgusting!

We realised our clothes were absolutely stinking of smoke as the smoke seemed to be billowing in our bedroom from between the wardrobe in our room and the bathroom. In the morning of 1 November 2013 the new hotel agreed to launder all our clothes. We did not get our clothes back until the afternoon of 4 November 2013. I had to borrow clothes for our whole family as all our clothes were in the one and only wardrobe in our room. When we finally got the clothes back the white clothes were grey in colour and shrunk. Please see attached a photo as an example. All the clothes looked like they had been boil washed to remove the smell.

Our new hotel, was not what we had requested at our booking. One room was a on the 5th floor whilst the rest of the family had their rooms on the 4th floor. Also we all had paid extra for a family room in the Paradise Lago with two separate sleeping areas and our new rooms were 1 room where we all had to sleep in it.

The morning after the fire the other residence noted above had written out statements and given them to their tour operators. They were very unhappy with what had happened and the hotels response. The staff of the Paradise Lago hotel were telling people that it was only a small fire and a little bit of smoke. They also said the fire alarms went off. Yes they did go off eventually, by that stage first floor residence would have been dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We spoke with the manager of the hotel and reception staff and were told that there was actually 2 separate fires during 1 November 2013. One was located directly under our rooms, 117,114 &113, the other was in the animation room. This made sense as the local fire investigators were working in the staff quarters directly below our room, near the elevator shaft on the corridor near the restaurant and the smell from that room was electrical fire smell and electrical wires looked fire damaged etc . I advised the manager my husband and I were also getting headaches, black soot coming down our noses and a general feeling of dizziness.

Tour operators flew their investigators over from the UK to investigate after a large number of hotel guests had complained.
However not one investigator came to speak to the residence who had been moved from their smoke filled death trap rooms to the hotel across the road, I doubt if they even were in our rooms above the fire as they cordoned off the room that had the fire underneath our bedrooms - total sham!
By our last day - 5th November 2013, the first floor rooms remained unoccupied, with the patio doors opened to let the smell out.

The manager of the hotel constantly avoided us, until we approached him one day and told him we had been the ones to evacuate the first floor rooms and the fire alarm did not go off etc. His response was to allow us a 30 minute back massage and a bottle of champers.

After the events of that night, we as a family remain badly shaken and traumatised. Since the children awoke in a smoke filled room to us shouting 'fire we need to get out' they are having nightmares. They worried about a fire in the new hotel, waking up in the middle of the night and thinking there was a fire when they heard the buses at the front of the new hotel making the reversing sound.

We have come back from the holiday totally traumatised, we lost all enjoyment of our holiday and are now still living with the traumatic aftermath of the events of that night. After saving for years for this holiday in which are family could easily have lost all 10 family members, we are saddened by what could easily have been an absolute tragedy and should never be allowed to happen again.

On my return home I emailed the above information to 'On the Beach' who we made the booking through requesting financial compensation and this is the response we got from them:

'Dear Partner Thank you for your e-mail. Having investigated this matter with our supplier I have noted their response below for your records. We have no reason to suggest that the hotel did not act approopriately in attending to this incident, and our records indicate that we had over 300 other guests staying at this hotel during the same period and have not received any other complaints in this regard. I hope that this information will help'.

I know for a fact this is untrue and maybe 'on the beach' should read the reviews on 'trip advisor'.

This is the response we got from the hotel:

'Our resort office has advices us that at approximately 01.00 this morning (Friday), the fire alarm sounded at the Paradise Lago Taurito due to smoke being present in the basement of the hotel. The fire brigade arrived at 01.30 and evacuated all the guests. At 05.00, all guests returned to their rooms. There were no injuries however, all customers have been offered a room change or a move to sister hotels, Valle Taurito or the Taurito Princess. The police have cordoned off the basement area and the authorities are investigating the cause'.

So where do I go from here - I requested compensation and the hotel and 'on the beach' have ignored this as our contract is with the hotel as we didnt book a package holiday and ABTA are of no help!

Thanks in advance,

Crusty x

visidigi

crusty_toenail wrote: »

We traveled to a hotel in Gran Canaria as a family of 10 - 6 adults and 4 children. It was to be a holiday of a lifetime being the first time we had all been away together after a very challenging year for all of us.

The hotel rooms were clean and all appeared to be okay with this accommodation until Halloween night (we are not hard people to please!)

Shortly after 1am on 1 November 2013, my husband and I were woken up struggling to breathe, coughing and choking. We got out of bed, turned on the light and realised our bedroom was full of smoke, we could hardly see in front of us. The smoke was so pungent, like smoke from an electrical fire. We started to panic and the first thing I thought was our children who were sleeping in the kitchen/living room next door must be on fire! We opened the living room door, fearing for the worst, fearing they would be dead, literally shaking from head to toe. We realised this room too was filled with smoke but our children were waking up, albeit traumatised.:eek:

We quickly got the children and got out of the apartment. I could hear distant voices shouting 'fire' and right in front of our room there was a grate in the ground with thick smoke coming though it and rising in the air.

There was NO fire alarm going off and I feared for other residence on this floor. Our rooms were on the first floor, the ground floor being occupied by reception/kitchen/room for staff. My husband started to smash the fire alarm boxes outside the rooms on our floor, three it total, but the fire alarms were not going off. Some Scandinavian hotel residents had witnessed the fire and were starting to head up the stairs to knock on doors on the upper floors to get the people out. They also smashed a further eight fire alarm boxes but these fire alarms also did not sound.

The families in the rooms beside us whose rooms were also starting to fill up with smoke stated that if we hadn't have knocked on their door when we did they could have easily died of smoke inhalation, as they can also testify the fire alarm did NOT sound and their rooms were full of smoke, so bad that when they returned to get their stuff their clothes were smoke damaged and the rooms were totally smoked out.:eek:

Once we had gotten the residence of the first floor out of their rooms without the assistance of any hotel staff members we made our own way out of the hotel, my sister in law having to bump her son in a wheelchair down stairs by herself as her husband was assisting the other children. We made it down to the front reception desk and were surprised to see the receptionist on the phone.
We told him that our room was engulfed in smoke and some Scandinavian guests also told him they had witnessed a fire and had tried to extinguish it and that we were all trying to get people out of the building and that he needed to put the fire alarms on. He told us that there was no fire it was only smoke and refused to help get people out or put the fire alarm on.:mad:

We congregated at the front of the hotel witnessing smoke billowing out of the main reception area in total horror as it was at least 30 minutes until a fire alarm was put on, but this alarm seemed very quiet and residence from the upper floors didn't seem to be evacuating the hotel. The lights in the hotel went out and there was no emergency lighting, so guests were now coming down stairs in the dark and in the smoke, some guests were injured as a result of falling down the stairs.

The only people that seemed to be working that night were the receptionist and a security guard who entered the hotel with a mask and oxygen tank strapped to his back. The police and fire fighters arrived and were there for a while putting the fire out. On speaking to the manager of the hotel after the event he told us he had been in Las Palmas the night of the fire and that he was told by his staff that the security guards, staff members, police and fire fighters had got people out. This is not the truth and other witness statements to tour operators etc will state this is not the truth.

We were all told to wait in the hotel across the road from our hotel - Paradise Lago, Taurito and go to the sister hotel - Paradise Valle Taurito, were we had to lie on the floor for four hours being told there were no rooms available, even for our nephew in a wheelchair. When we were told it was now safe for us to all go back into the hotel. Families with children first!!:eek:

We couldn't believe we were being asked to go back into a hotel full of smoke, with no lighting and wet floors. We waded through the water on the floor, breathing in more smoke and when we got to our room opened the door and the receptionist and security guard went into the room, told us to open the windows, get our stuff and get out. We packed our stuff in the dark, in the smoke, coughing and probably still in shock and quickly got out, in amazement at our near brush with death. By this stage we had realised the extent of what had happened to us, and the other guests on the first floor beside us were amazed at the amount of smoke which had built up in their rooms also.

We had to beg for a room in the Paradise Valle for the duration of the morning. Nobody helped us from the Paradise Lago, we were totally on our own. Nobody asked if we needed medical assistance, nobody helped us with securing a new room - totally disgusting!

We realised our clothes were absolutely stinking of smoke as the smoke seemed to be billowing in our bedroom from between the wardrobe in our room and the bathroom. In the morning of 1 November 2013 the new hotel agreed to launder all our clothes. We did not get our clothes back until the afternoon of 4 November 2013. I had to borrow clothes for our whole family as all our clothes were in the one and only wardrobe in our room. When we finally got the clothes back the white clothes were grey in colour and shrunk. Please see attached a photo as an example. All the clothes looked like they had been boil washed to remove the smell.

Our new hotel, was not what we had requested at our booking. One room was a on the 5th floor whilst the rest of the family had their rooms on the 4th floor. Also we all had paid extra for a family room in the Paradise Lago with two separate sleeping areas and our new rooms were 1 room where we all had to sleep in it.

The morning after the fire the other residence noted above had written out statements and given them to their tour operators. They were very unhappy with what had happened and the hotels response. The staff of the Paradise Lago hotel were telling people that it was only a small fire and a little bit of smoke. They also said the fire alarms went off. Yes they did go off eventually, by that stage first floor residence would have been dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We spoke with the manager of the hotel and reception staff and were told that there was actually 2 separate fires during 1 November 2013. One was located directly under our rooms, 117,114 &113, the other was in the animation room. This made sense as the local fire investigators were working in the staff quarters directly below our room, near the elevator shaft on the corridor near the restaurant and the smell from that room was electrical fire smell and electrical wires looked fire damaged etc . I advised the manager my husband and I were also getting headaches, black soot coming down our noses and a general feeling of dizziness.

Tour operators flew their investigators over from the UK to investigate after a large number of hotel guests had complained.
However not one investigator came to speak to the residence who had been moved from their smoke filled death trap rooms to the hotel across the road, I doubt if they even were in our rooms above the fire as they cordoned off the room that had the fire underneath our bedrooms - total sham!
By our last day - 5th November 2013, the first floor rooms remained unoccupied, with the patio doors opened to let the smell out.

The manager of the hotel constantly avoided us, until we approached him one day and told him we had been the ones to evacuate the first floor rooms and the fire alarm did not go off etc. His response was to allow us a 30 minute back massage and a bottle of champers.

After the events of that night, we as a family remain badly shaken and traumatised. Since the children awoke in a smoke filled room to us shouting 'fire we need to get out' they are having nightmares. They worried about a fire in the new hotel, waking up in the middle of the night and thinking there was a fire when they heard the buses at the front of the new hotel making the reversing sound.

We have come back from the holiday totally traumatised, we lost all enjoyment of our holiday and are now still living with the traumatic aftermath of the events of that night. After saving for years for this holiday in which are family could easily have lost all 10 family members, we are saddened by what could easily have been an absolute tragedy and should never be allowed to happen again.

On my return home I emailed the above information to 'On the Beach' who we made the booking through requesting financial compensation and this is the response we got from them:

'Dear Partner Thank you for your e-mail. Having investigated this matter with our supplier I have noted their response below for your records. We have no reason to suggest that the hotel did not act approopriately in attending to this incident, and our records indicate that we had over 300 other guests staying at this hotel during the same period and have not received any other complaints in this regard. I hope that this information will help'.

I know for a fact this is untrue and maybe 'on the beach' should read the reviews on 'trip advisor'.

This is the response we got from the hotel:

'Our resort office has advices us that at approximately 01.00 this morning (Friday), the fire alarm sounded at the Paradise Lago Taurito due to smoke being present in the basement of the hotel. The fire brigade arrived at 01.30 and evacuated all the guests. At 05.00, all guests returned to their rooms. There were no injuries however, all customers have been offered a room change or a move to sister hotels, Valle Taurito or the Taurito Princess. The police have cordoned off the basement area and the authorities are investigating the cause'.

So where do I go from here - I requested compensation and the hotel and 'on the beach' have ignored this as our contract is with the hotel as we didnt book a package holiday and ABTA are of no help!

Thanks in advance,

Crusty x

Wot?

crusty_toenail wrote: »

Hotel caught fire.

Fire alarms didn't work.

Want to be compensated for what could have happened.

So where do I go from here - I requested compensation and the hotel and 'on the beach' have ignored this as our contract is with the hotel as we didnt book a package holiday and ABTA are of no help!

Thanks in advance,

Crusty x

Ok the above quote is the crux of the book in the original post. Frankly, its a scary event, but it is also a coulda, woulda, shoulda moment. The hotel was clearly affected, as were you, but your travel insurance would have relocated you if you had explained this to them.

I appreciate its a horrible experience, but things do happen. The problem with life is unless things ACTUALLY happen then there is little they can really base your claim on.

These things must have emotion removed. If your letter or email is like your post, then this is why you are not getting anywhere...

ThumbRemote

For a holiday you can claim for both what you paid for and didn't get, and for 'loss of enjoyment' - a much more subjective issue.

So, you need to calculate what you didn't get. Given the issues from the fire onwards, it seems that the last 5/6 days of your holiday were ruined. So I'd want to claim that back as a percentage of your holiday.

Damage to clothing - make a list of what was damaged and the value of those.

Loss of enjoyment - complete finger in the air, but say 20% of the holiday costs on top.

It will be very difficult to pursue this on your own. If onthebeach were simply agents for the hotel, you would need to claim direct against the hotel (under Spanish law - in a Spanish court)? Do you have addresses for other guests who can give statements if it comes to court?

You may want to talk to your holiday or home insurance about whether they cover legal expenses. Maybe a free initial consultation with a solicitor.

If going it alone, get your evidence, calculate what you're claiming for, write to onthebeach with the claim. When they reject it send a letter before action and then a small claims court claim. No guarantees though.

hollydays

Initially I would have been demanding answers to specific questions ie why did the fire alarms not work( or weren't switched on according to one of the reviews)there are numerous reviews of this incident on tripadviser, you could contact people via that site.
It sounded traumatic and terrifying. Apparently this was the third fire in a few months.

unholyangel

Regarding the agent saying no one else has complained.....this is entirely possible. Its extremely rare for a hotel only to be booked through one agent.

You may find other guests booked via another agent or as a package holiday.

As for the kids, this may sound harsh but the kids reaction will be based off your own reaction. If they see their parents panicked and scared...they will think there is something to be panicked/scared about. Very much in the same manner that when a child falls, there is a moment of utter shock where they look to their parents/parental figure and the response given by the parent will determine whether the kid gets up and laughs it off or starts screaming down the house.

Do you have travel insurance? It may be easier and quicker to claim off that - especially if your contract is with the hotel and it is governed under Spanish law.

I'm not sure whether to criticise them for procedures or not. I don't mean I approve of their actions (or rather, inaction). Just that all too often, we judge things based on what we're used to in the UK, forgetting that we are in a foreign country and that they may do things differently (or dangerously if you prefer!).

But as vsi says, you cant sue for what could've happened. You could've died through smoke inhalation. You could have gotten hit by a bus. You could've crashed in the plane on the way over. Couldve went sleepwalking into the pool and drowned.

The list of what could have happened, is endless. Thankfully the list of what did happen is not.