23/08/2007

Search Continues At Hotel Fire Site

More human remains are reported to have been found at the site of a hotel fire in Newquay in Cornwall.

Following the fire at the Penhallow Hotel on Tuesday, two people are still unaccounted for. One man was killed in the blaze. Peter Hughes, 43, from Cheslyn Hay in Staffordshire jumped from one of the hotel's upper floors when the fire broke out on Saturday.

An inquest into his death, which opened at Truro City Hall on Wednesday, heard that he had shouted that he could not move his mother before he jumped from the window. His mother, Monica Hughes, 86, is one of those people still missing.

At the inquest into his death, Cornwall coroner Emma Carlyon ruled that Mr Hughes died from the inhalation of smoke and toxic fumes.

Four people are still in hospital following the blaze, but they are all said to be improving.

The search of the rubble of the site is expected to take more than two weeks.

The cause of the fire is still unknown and police are treating the fire as a "major crime" until evidence was found to suggest otherwise.

(KMcA/SP)

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