Chester hotel evacuated in fire scare

HOTEL guests had their mornings cut short after their building was evacuated in a fire scare in Chester.

However, residents staying at the Best Western Queen Hotel, City Road, were allowed back into their rooms shortly after the source of the alarm was found to be an electrical fault.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service sent two appliances to the scene after receiving a call at about 10.30am on Friday.

White Watch manager Chris Rodaway said upon arrival firefighters found a strong smell of smoke coming from the basement staircase of the hotel.

He said: “Firefighters conducted a search of the area and using the thermal image camera, identified that a light fitting was overheating.

The electrician for the building was notified and electrics isolated until repair.“There were no injuries.”

He added: “We recognise the good work by the staff at the hotel for a full and orderly evacuation at the premises in response to the alarm.”

Smokers are being asked to be careful when discarding their cigarettes after a blaze in Chester over the weekend.

Emergency crews responded to a call after a pile of rubbish became engulfed in flames behind The Terrace Bar, Cheyney Road.

City firefighter Anthony McCarthy said the fire was caused after a lit cigarette was thrown on bags of waste that were stored against the back of the building at 2.30am yesterday.

He said: “There are two things immediately wrong with this.

The rubbish should not have been stored against the building and it was a careless throwing of a lit cigarette. There were no injuries.”