MORE than 180 guests were evacuated from the Manor House Hotel following a fire last Saturday.

Firecrews from Okehampton, North Tawton and Hatherleigh had to use breathing apparatus to tackle the fire at the hotel at Fowley Cross.

Hotel management praised the action of firefighters. The running of the hotel has not been affected by the incident.

Station officer Ian Donovan said the crews arrived at the hotel at about 1.20am to find smoke coming from the first and second floor bedrooms.

?The fire was located in a ground floor cupboard and smoke had spread through the floors and ducts into the bedrooms,? said Mr Donovan, who said the cause of the blaze was a defective dehumidifier.

But despite the dangers, he said guests at the hotel were slow to react to the fire alarms.

?Guests were reluctant to leave their rooms even though the alarms were sounding. I really was seriously concerned at the fact they took no notice. They were not only endangering themselves but it also put firefighters at risk - they were so complacent in their attitude,? said Mr Donovan.

?Alarms sound for a reason ? the message to anyone who stays away from home in a hotel or guest house is to familiarise themselves with the fire routine for that building, make sure they know where safe access routes are and if the alarm sounds, they must leave the building.?

Mr Donovan said eventually 183 guests were evacuated from the hotel.

He said fire damage was confined to a cupboard in the boiler room.

Andy Brent, manager of the Manor House Hotel, said the fire had been ?minor? and had not affected the 180-room hotel seriously.

?We had a clean up next day but it hasn?t affected the running of the hotel at all ? the firemen did a good job,? he said.

Mr Brent accepted the evacuation of the hotel was not carried out as swiftly as the fire officers would have liked.

?It?s one of those things. Alarms go off and people automatically think it?s a false alarm. It wasn?t a problem although it wasn?t perhaps as quick as the fire officers would have liked,? he said.

l Firecrews from Okehampton and North Tawton were called to tackle a blaze which seriously damaged a Dutch barn in the Fowley Cross area early last Sunday morning.

Okehampton station officer Ian Donovan said around 50% of the single-storey barn was badly damaged in the blaze, which burned approximately 50 large bales of hay.

Firecrews stayed at the site from 4.10am until about 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Police are treating the fire as suspicious.