Sprinklers save blazing hotel

A sprinkler system is believed to have saved lives at a four-star hotel in Dorset which caught fire last week, according to fire officers.

One hundred guests at the Highcliff Marriott hotel in Bournemouth were evacuated after a blaze broke out in the hotel basement.

Smoke poured through the first two floors of the four-storey building.

The fire started after a failure in an emergency lighting back-up battery. Damage was contained to eight rooms below ground.

Assistant divisional fire officer Paul Saltmarsh said: "Hotel fires are difficult to contain.

"There is no doubt this fire would have seriously damaged the entire building had it not been for the sprinkler system."

The hotel, on the resort's West Cliff, is popular among politicians during the party conference season.

A spokesman for the 157-bedroom hotel said: "Everything is now OK. There was little damage and everybody was fine."