Richard Dyson and Simon Midgley

“Every hotel should have a readily accessible and accurate list of the guests and staff members in the establishment on a particular night. In an emergency situation it is imperative that the Fire and Rescue Service are provided with accurate information speedily in case anyone remains trapped in the building. It is a situation where every second counts.”

“Itis foreseeable that in the stressful atmosphere of an emergency, people may hesitate or make mistakes. In this case, forgetting to take the guest list as the building was evacuated. In consequence, although the Fire and Rescue Service had arrived at the hotel by 6.51 am, it was not until sometime after 8am that it was established two guests were missing. Critical time was lost before rescue efforts began to find them.”

“To avoid needless impediments to rescue efforts, it would be prudent for hotels to have an electronic system such as SharePoint which would enable the emergency services to gain prompt access to such vital information.”