Cameron House: Hotel did not run fire drills at night, says director

Management at Cameron House did not hold fire drills at night prior to a fatal blaze, an inquiry has heard.

Andy Roger, 43, was resort director at the luxury Loch Lomond hotel at the time of the fire on 18 December 2017.

It claimed the lives of Simon Midgley, 32, and Richard Dyson, 38 - a couple from London who were on holiday.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) is being held at Paisley Sheriff Court to determine if lessons can be learned to minimise the risk of future deaths.

The fire began after night porter Christopher O'Malley left a plastic bag of ash in a concierge's cupboard containing newspapers and kindling.

When asked by Sheriff Thomas McCartney what time fire drills were held, Mr Roger said: "We generally took them around 10:30 to 11:00 in the morning or 15:00 or 16:00 in the afternoon.

"Between 10:00 and 16:00, generally, the hours of the drills."

Questioned by Crown counsel Graeme Jessop about role play drills after hours, Mr Roger said: "That was not something we did.

"In hindsight that's something we have done differently, we have done silent drills since we re-opened to capture that."

As part of the evacuation plan, workers were instructed to pick up a bag which included equipment to help with the roll call of guests.

However, as the intensity of the fire in reception grew on the night of the fire, the bag was left behind.

Mr Roger was asked if there was any back-up.

"A duplicate of equipment? Not that I can recall," he told the court, adding many of the hotel's systems were cloud-based and could be accessed from a laptop.

The inquiry was told about the hotel's fire plan which, under its general section, stated: "Combustible material of any kind must not be stored in general electrical or boiler rooms."

Cameron House was ordered to pay £500,000 after admitting to breaches of fire safety rules.

O'Malley admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and was given a community payback order.

The Crown Office initially said an FAI was not needed because the circumstances of the fatalities had been established - but a review overturned the decision after Mrs Midgley called for wider lessons to be learned.

A coroner in England ruled that the couple were unlawfully killed and raised concerns he had not been allowed access to documents and CCTV footage by Scottish authorities.

The inquiry continues.