Cameron House: Guest crawled through smoke to escape fatal fire

A woman has told an inquiry that she feared for her life as she crawled through thick black smoke while escaping from a burning hotel.

Pauline Booth and her husband Scott escaped the fire at the five-star Cameron House Hotel in December 2017.

The blaze claimed the lives of Simon Midgley, 32, and his partner, Richard Dyson, 38, from London.

A fatal accident inquiry into the fire at the hotel, near Balloch, is being held at Paisley Sherriff Court.

Mrs Booth became emotional as she recalled meeting Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson at the spa and restaurant on the evening before the fire.

She said: "They were having a night cap so we said good night. They looked like they were having a nice night and enjoying themselves."

Mrs Booth said she was woken by a piercing fire alarm in the early hours of the morning.

The inquiry heard she told her husband that she had seen black smoke and that it was "definitely a real fire".

Mrs Booth said that when they left their room the smoke made it difficult to see a clear escape route.

She said: "The smoke was really dense, it was black and it was heavy.

"We were on the floor, looking for the main staircase, crawling below the smoke."

She told the inquiry that the smoke was around a metre from the floor.

Upon arriving at the main stairway, the couple realised they could not go any further as they could see the fire from the bottom of the stairway.

They turned around, again, crawling below the smoke and feeling for an exit.

Mrs Booth said she thought she and her husband thought they were trapped, but eventually found a fire door.

She said: "As soon as we got through that door it was like a different world.

"There was no smoke, we could see other people who were totally unaware of what we had gone through in that area."

The couple eventually escaped and congregated with others on the grassy area near the front of the hotel.

Mrs Booth recalled the distress of seeing a couple with their child trapped inside the hotel, signalling for help at a window above.

She said: "My husband and I walked away. We couldn't watch it.

"We knew what they were saying and that no-one could help them until the fire service came.

"We were very lucky to get out and knew how difficult it was. It was quite disturbing because they had a child."

Later, the couple were sent to the boat house with other hotel guests.

Mrs Booth told the inquiry she was distressed to hear Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson's names repeatedly called during a roll-call.

She said: "The staff were calling the same names and they weren't responding.

"Because it was the two young guys that weren't responding I was getting uneasy because I knew they were in a suite near us."

Hotel operator Cameron House Resort (Loch Lomond) Ltd was previously fined £500,000, and night porter Christopher O'Malley given a community payback order over the fire.

A court heard that the fire started after O'Malley emptied ash and embers from a fuel fire into a polythene bag, and then put it in a cupboard of kindling and newspapers.

The inquiry continues.