Eyewitness saw 'fire victim jump'

Paul Knight was one of the first on the scene

Eyewitnesses have been describing the fire that consumed the Penhallow Hotel on the seafront in Newquay.

Paul Knight is a night security guard at the nearby Reef Hotel and was carrying out a building patrol when he first heard the fire alarm.

"Then I saw the flames and saw loads of people coming out," he said.

"I saw an old lady struggling on the fire escape and gave her a hand down and as I got her down I saw the flames were taking over the top of the fire exit.

"Once everyone had moved away, through the clouds of smoke you could see a man leaning out of the window.

"Thirty seconds later I saw him tumbling out of the top window."

It looked pretty horrific Lara Snell, student

Lara Snell, a student who lives in the town, was having a drink with friends in a bar at about midnight when she first heard about the fire.

"Someone came in and said there was a fire but I didn't think much of it at first," she said.

"Then someone else said it was a really big thing.

"When we went out we saw that flames were raging through at least four floors and it looked pretty horrific.

Local photographer Robert Meech took this picture of the fire

"Looking at it and knowing it's a hotel you immediately think there's going to be people in there and you are worried that people have probably died."

Local photographer, Robert Meech, was on his way home from work when he first saw the hotel engulfed in flames.

"I could actually smell a strong smell of smoke. I looked over in that direction and I could just see a gigantic amount of flames," he said.

As he got closer to the building to take some photographs he said he felt the extreme heat hit him in the face.

There was debris flying over my head that was on fire Robert Meech

"I managed to get round the back side of it to get a few close-up shots and there was debris flying over my head that was on fire," he added.

"I mean the heat coming from that building, even from where the police taped it across, you could feel it. It hit you in the face."

Mr Meech, who has lived in Newquay for 10 years, said the fire was the biggest he had ever seen in the town.

He said about 50 people were watching the fire from behind cordons set up by the emergency services.

Many of these were revellers on their way home from a night out.

He said: "I think that actually did cause a bit of a problem, because I was at the front line and there were a couple of drunk guys trying to start problems with the press, asking them why they were taking photographs."