Islington Tribune - News: Workers miraculous escape from holloway hotel blaze

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Islington Tribune - by ED CUMMING
Published: 20 April 2007

Fire fighters tackling the fifth-floor blaze

Workers’ miraculous escape from Holloway hotel blaze

YOUNG workers talked of a miraculous escape from a five-story hotel in Holloway after fire broke out in the roof on Wednesday morning.
About 28 mainly foreign workers occupy the hotel although half had been out at work when the blaze started at 9.42am.
The rest, mainly night workers, escaped from the building in Camden Road close to Holloway prison within minutes as smoke and flames started pouring from top floor windows.
More than 50 firemen using extended ladders fought the blaze for more than two hours and the busy Camden Road was closed to traffic.
Residents from next-door estates were evacuated as giant plumes of smoke shrouded the area.
French bar worker Jerome Bretonnye, 25, described how he had been lying in bed on the top floor when he heard the alarm. “It had gone off before for no reason, so I didn’t worry,” he said. “I thought it was another drill. But then I smelled thick smoke from the landing and I grabbed some clothes and got down the stairs quick.
“A few more minutes and I believe I would have been trapped up there.”
Mr Bretonnye had no time to collect his possessions, which were all destroyed in the blaze, including a laptop computer.
The roof and upper floors were extensively damaged.

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