Family's shock after fleeing fire

Julia Rouse and her mother Rosemary Snook were on holiday

A mother and daughter on a family holiday have described how they fled the blazing Penhallow Hotel.

Rosemary Snook and her husband Charles from Richmond, North Yorks, ran to alert their daughter, son-in-law and grandson, but they had already escaped.

Mrs Snook said: "We couldn't get out of our fire exit, the flames were coming up so we had to run to the other end of the hotel.

"The flames were meeting us as we were going down the stairs," she said.

It was just mayhem, it really was Holidaymaker Julia Rouse

Her daughter, Julia Rouse said: "We got outside the hotel, the alarm had been going maybe two or three minutes, and it was just an inferno.

"You looked back and you could see the flames coming out of the hotel.

"It was just mayhem, it really was."

Mrs Snook added: "We just hoped and prayed everybody else got out."

Still shaken hours after fleeing the blaze Julia said: "We have lost everything, but we're just so lucky to have each other."

The Snook family had stayed at the hotel on previous holidays

She added that the family were saddened by the death of one man and feared for those still missing.

"It was just so frightening, just total shock, you come on holiday and you don't expect anything like this at all," she said.

"We've had lots of lovely holidays here and stayed in that particular hotel for some years and as I say it was a frightening experience.

"It's one I hope we never have to experience again.

"I'm just so grateful that myself, my husband and son and mum and dad are OK."