London Marriott evacuated after chemicals scare

About 300 staff and guests were evacuated from the 200-bedroom London Marriott County Hall hotel yesterday evening after poisonous chlorine gas was released from the hotel's spa bath.

Four fire engines and 20 firefighters dressed in protective suits were called to the hotel at 5.30pm after a worker mixed the wrong amounts of two chemicals used to maintain chlorine levels in the spa, located in the hotel's top-floor health club.

The hotel worker was affected by the fumes and taken to nearby St Thomas's hospital, where she was kept in overnight for observation.

A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said: "Only the person in the immediate vicinity was in danger but the hotel staff did exactly the right thing in evacuating everybody.

"We analysed the chemicals, then diluted them and washed them down the drainage system."

A spokesman for Whitbread, which runs the hotel, said: "It was a very minor incident. The evacuation was carried out under emergency services guidelines. It was purely a precautionary procedure and the guests were back in the hotel within two hours."

There were 67 staff working in the hotel at the time and 280 guests staying overnight, although not all of these were in the hotel when the evacuation took place.

The spokesman added: "There are very strict procedures for handling these chemicals. We are conducting a full and thorough investigation to ensure that if anything can be done to tighten up the procedure, it will be."

Any disgruntled hotel guests seeking compensation after the incident would be dealt with on an individual basis, he said.

by David Shrimpton david.shrimpton@rbi.co.uk