FIRE crews from all over the area raced to one of South East Cornwall's premier hotels after a blaze started in the kitchen early on Monday morning.

Engines from Looe, Liskeard, Polruan, Saltash and Torpoint and about 50 firefighters, were quickly at the scene after a call from the night porter at Looe's Hannafore Point Hotel about 6.20am.

He quickly alerted other staff who arranged the evacuation of the 60 guests to safety.

Damage

A fire brigade spokesperson said staff acted calmly and had obviously been well briefed in emergency procedures.

Because the hotel is a five storey building an engine with a special aerial ladder which has a cage and platform, was rushed to assist from Plymouth.

It has been confirmed that the fire started in a deep fat fryer, and that firefighters soon had the blaze under control. However, extensive damage running into thousands of pounds was caused to the kitchen and smoke was able to spread to three floors.

Police had to close the Hannafore approach road for more than two hours until the fire units had completed their work just after 8am. Guests were given hot drinks and breakfast in the hotel bar.

The hotel's assistant manager, Mark McQuillen, said yesterday, that staff had been working extremely hard in a clean up operation and the hotel was back to normal order, although part of the kitchen is as yet unusable. A family at Menheniot have been reassured by the hotel that their wedding reception and evening celebration booked for tomorrow can go ahead as planned.