22/10/2012 Inside Out South West

Hello and welcome to Inside Out South West. Investigations and

stories from where you live. Tonight have the lessons of

Britain's worst hotel fire in 40 years been learned? I thought I was

trapped. I could speck smoke. I thought this is my end. We go

undercover to for safety concerns. I think things have got worse, the

problem is you could be booking into a hotel which could be a

deathtrap. Sorting out a very faulty towers. The fire safety

flaws inherited by the new owner of Torquay's reality TV hotel, and

what he is doing about them. Also tonight, the only way is up, for

Devon's double amputee mountaineer Norman Croucher. I I am Sam Smith

When you check-in to a hotel, how much thought do you give to how

safe it? The death of three people in the Penhallow Hotel fire five

years ago revealed worrying shortcomings in some hotels. What

we are going to show you tonight suggest there's is still serious

cause for concern. It is not known for sure how the Penhallow Hotel

started. But it was the speed at which it spread that proved

devastating. In the aftermath, we asked one expert a question. Could

it happen again? Certainly, all the ingredients are there for a similar

catastrophe. And he was right. May last year. Tantons Hotel in

As investigators move in they quickly discover the clues that it

is arson. But also how guests were put at unnecessary risk, by the

state of the hotel itself. Four people had to be rescued from the

roof. 51 others evacuated. One of them was Judith Hambrook. First

thing I knew was the alarm at 3.30 in the morning. I thought this is

for real. Put the light on. Then it stopped. The alarm stopped. And I

looked out of the window. I couldn't see anything, but I could

hear shouting. "Help, help." The alarm went again and I thought

"That is for real." I got dressed. I could smell smoke, so I left the

room, and then I made for the fire exit, looking for fire exits.

Followed this corridor. Opened the door. Had to go down a well of

about five steps, to which I thought was an outer door, fire

door. I went down, I pushed, nothing happened. I wouldn't open.

I pushed extra hard, still, I kicked, started to panic. I turned

round, to go back up, and the door had closed behind me, which I

suppose it should have done. There was no handle on the inside. So I

really thought I was trapped. I could smell smoke. I thought "This

is my end." Somehow, I don't know how I managed to do it I put my

finger in the hole and I managed to do something to pull that door open,

and I got back on to landing. Judith managed to escape. Despite

the hotel's many failings. Like an exit route blocked by oil canisters.

A Sir Menzies Campbell detector covered own so it was useless. As

well as that door without a handle, and the one to the street that was

Jameed. Leaving Judith trapped. -- a smoke detector. At court last

month, owners Chescombe Ltd were fined �40,000. Like the owners of

the Penhallow the company had been warned about safety problems years

earlier. So, what is going on? Is it rare for hotels like Tantons and

the Penn to be putting their guests lives in danger, or is there a

wider problem in the industry. We decided to investigate. --

Penhallow. With the help of this man. Alan Cox has worked in the

fire safety industry for more than 40 years, as a fireman and

consultant. Five years ago, we asked him to go undercover in

south-west hotels. He found problems at 13 out of the 14 he

visited. That door is held open by the car net. It maybe the carpet

fitters who have done it. When Alan was a fireman, it was the job of

the fire brigade to certify hotels as safe. But six years ago the law

changed and now assessing safety is down to hotel owners. Alan is

worried that system just isn't working. I think that things have

got worse. Because a lot of the things I am seeing now are basic

failure, the problem is today you book a hotel, you don't foe whether

it has been inspected by a competent person, you don't know

how competent that person was, what degree of knowledge and experience

they have. You don't know when the fire brigade last checked the

building. As a consequence, you could be booking into a hotel which

could be a deathtrap. So we asked Alan to go undercover in a sample

of hotels again. Checking for weaknesss in the defences, that

should keep fire under control for at least half an hour. What should

happen, in theory of course, you get a fire in a bedroom, shoiant

spread out of that bedroom. The problem is, particularly in older

hotels, there are a lot of voids and openings which separate rooms

and fire can travel in those voids, and go from room to room rapidly.

Alan son fuends problems. Store cupboards are high risk for fire,

and should be kept locked shut. -- Alan ee -- Alan soon fuends

Shoddy workmanship like this pro vieds routes for fire to spread. --

provides. As does this exit door, left ajar under a fire escape. We

found many fire doors propped open. In self closing hinge would take

minutes to repair, but nobody's bothered. And badly fitting doors

are a concern. Well, obviously the gap at the top of the door is where

the fire will first find its way through that door in the frame.

Because that is the hottest part of the fire. Here, Alan has found a

feature common to many Victorian hotels. It is an internal light

well, surrounded by corridors and rooms. One possible factor in the

rapid spread of the Penhallow blaze was the windows round a similar

well didn't have fire resisting glazing, and nor do they at the

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 61 seconds

Remember that blocked exit route at Tantons? In one hotel, Alan follows

an escape route that lead through Imagine trying to get past this lot

in the dark, and in a panic. Elsewhere, if you found yourself on

this fire escape you would have to hope it wasn't all ready alight,

thanks to the rubbish underneath. And remember the missing handle

that left Judith Hambrook trapped in the Tantons fire? Well, this is

the final exit door on a fire escape route. It is not maintained

properly. That is going to come off, you know. Somebody in a panic

grabbed that, it would probably come off. All be one of the 14

hotels we visit fail Alan's inspection. The same worrying

result as our investigation five years ago. I had hoped that after

we did the last programme there would be a significant improvement

in the hotels here. Clearly, after what we have seen, there isn't.

Many of the failings are exactly the same. You might be wondering

what the roll of the Fire Service is in all this. While officers no

longer certify hotels at safe, they do inspect them. But not all of

them. Using the Freedom of Information Act we discover that

only round a quarter of all hotels in Devon an Somerset have been

inspected in the past five year, and last year, half of those that

did get a visit were judged unsatisfactory. Devon an Somerset

Fire Service points out it targets the riskiest hotels and that the

number of fires has gone down by nearly half since the law changed:.

We used to come along, check your building, give you a fire

certificate and I know from personal experience, that fire

certificate, issued in year one, checked in year three, may have

lain dormant in a drawer for all of that time. It wasn't a live matter,

and we can't be there all of the time, that is the difference, we

have got thousands of buildings where people need to be protected

from fire, and it is people in those buildings that need to take

action. One concern though is that the economic downturn is leading to

We are hearing that some are repeat customers are extending the Tyne

between inspections. In this hotel order is not cutting corners but he

is aware of the cost of keeping guests safe. You have got to have a

strip which expands and seals the door. They have replaced every

Fyodor and rewired twice to comply with new legislation. -- fire door.

We have a smoke detector in every bedroom. If that is what you have

got to do that is what you have got to do. How expensive is it? It is

very expensive. I some people going out of business because of this?

You will hear people saying that the business will not support it.

It depends what your priorities are. If you are a fan of fly-on-the-wall

TV you might not be surprised which a hotel was of most concern.

Welcome to the Grosvenor. Would I stay in this hotel? The directors

and owners of a certain store or probably do not wear the clothes

from that stored. They then that order Mark Jenkins did not read his

hotel and neither did we. Underneath this fire escape we find

a bonfire in waiting. And another hazard is spotted. You can see a

window that has not caught fire resistant blazing. -- fire

resistant glass. Inside we found an and lot linen cupboard with no

smoke detector. Hot laundered linen cannot spontaneously combust. This

linen cupboard is on an escape route. We found many fire doors

propped open. We contacted Mr Jenkins who was in the middle of

selling the hotel. He did not respond even when the told him

about the reminder of what had happened to Judith Hambrook and.

Can you give it a big pool? -- a big pool. There were more fire

doors wedged open and there were closed. That would tell has got to

realise where the problems lie and do something about it. -- at hotel.

He alerted the fire service who sent an advisory letter to Mr

Jenkins, but he did not take any action. Four weeks later the Grove

and there has got a new aura. Keith Richardson is getting down to

sorting out safety. We have started. His team have found a concern that

we must. Imagine how much fuel this lot would provide for a buyer. It

had all been dumped in the basement. The new owner has been disposing of

it. The previous owners have just been storing whatever is broken.

All of this has huge amount of furniture was all in the basement

of the hotel. I showed the new owner the faults that he had found.

His team showed me even more. Among the priorities for the pair were

this fire escape. Bat has been fixed this afternoon. -- bat has

been fixed. What about the jab X's daughter? -- what about their exit

door that is jammed. Why don't you close the hotel for a

few days until things like this are sorted. If the fire brigade had

serious issues they would have closed it down. It is you call.

That is why we are working today. He was true to his word. The Fire

Service says it is pleased with the progress that has been made towards

meeting legal obligations. That took 10 seconds. You can check out

all sorts of things about a hotel. The size of the swimming pool,

their availability of a bar, but when it comes down to what is most

important, you're safety in a fire, you are left to hope that the owner

knows what they are doing and that the fire service will step down if

they do not. That system did not protect the

victims of the Penhallow fire or people like Judith Handbook who

could have perished. If I go anywhere now where there is a

bonfire I get flashbacks. You cannot put a price on life. People

are coming to stay in your hotel. They want to be seat. We must have

Plenty of retired people live active and adventurous lives at how

many 72-year-old double amputees are still out there climbing

mountains? Our reporter joined Norman Croucher on his latest

Last year inside out followed Norman Croucher as he was learning

to paraglide. One year later he is still setting himself challenges.

Remarkable for a man who did not -- remarkable for a man who nearly did

not make it to the age of 20. In 1960 as a young Nineteen-year-old

Norman Croucher stumbled drunk on to train tracks and passed out.

When he recovered both legs had been cut off by a passing train.

Despite his accident he has gone on to become one of the most

successful men two years in the UK. At 72, long past the age when many

people hang up their boots, he is planning his next trip to the

mountains. This is where I keep my spare legs. It is an old fashion

design. They work for me. On this next trip I shall not take them. It

is a quick trip. I should not need them. We have got a very flexible

plan. We me go to a nice-looking mountain in Austria. But a friend

who lives in Switzerland has suggested that the wait and see

what the weather is like before deciding where to go. Jude worries

a little bit before I go away but not enormously. This time it is a

short trip. When I am on the bigger trips in isolated places they she

worries more. Norman is off on another trip. How does that make

you feel? As long as he achieves what he wants to do that is fine by

me. What does he think about you when he goes away? Does he worry

about you? I do not think so. He knows I am having a lovely time. He

will not worry about me. There is When Norman finally arrives in

Switzerland he is met by his friend and climbing partner Ian it's all

brick. All the need now is good weather.

There is a tiny bit of blue. After two days waiting for the weather to

turn finally the rain stops and it looks like their luck will change.

We have had two days of bad weather. It has come good. One thing I have

to do is put some take on the stump because there are up areas that

tend to grab and the skin comes off and it gets very painful. I use the

tape as a preventative measure. It's works pretty well. With it

being hot today, particularly with sweating the skin gets soft, and

there is the chance of losing skin, but that his life. It is lose a bit

of skin or state of the hills. There is one slight problem. Parts

of the trail may be a unseasonably cold. It is almost they end of June.

There is more snow than usual. After nearly six months of planning

the set off up the Chilchorn. This is the peak of just under 2,800

metres in Switzerland. I did not climb last year. I was paragliding

instead. I used up enough adrenalin for that year. It is nice to get

back here. I hope the weather improves. The forecast is very good.

I think we're going to be lucky. Norman is as huge inspiration to

other men to tears. I met him on at trek to the base camp of K2. That

is the second highest peak in the world in Pakistan. I met Norman

when he was descending from the neighbouring 8,000 Meek of Broad

Peak. I was curious to find out who this person was. It turned out to

be a man with no legs beneath Denise. To see Norman coming of an

8,000 metre mountain with to prosthetics astounded me.

One hour into the climate the temperature rising in the June

sunshine and Norman is feeling the pace. A I do not know where we are.

I do not know how much longer this After a short break the poor show.

The route is becoming much more demanding. -- after a short break

in the resume. I nearly went at the wrong side of

the mountain. But the path is very clear this week. It seems to zig-

zagged through the cracks. -- it seems to zig-zagged through the

cracks. It have to be quite steep. This summer it looks more

impressive in real life than in the After I lost my legs in some ways

it is parallel to what age is doing now. I cannot do now what I used to

do 15 years ago. That does not matter. You have just got to pick

the right things. I am having a I will be all right once I get my

You can do this last bit without Got it. We are there. Well done.

Good choice. You have still got it in you. I am very pleased to be on

the top. It is two years since I was up a mountain. I am very

pleased to have resumed. I can see around here lot of peaks that would

keep me going for many years. If I can keep going. That is the

Finsteraarhorn over there. After an exhausting climb up Norman has made