We make reference to the report Foul play not suspected in hotel fire (TMID 7 December).

This morning we were inundated with phone calls from clients who have made party bookings and read in your newspaper that the “The Kitchen at Santa Maria Hotel was gutted after a fire yesterday.”

For the sake of accuracy on Tuesday morning at 6.55am, an oil fire broke out in the satellite kitchen of the Santa Maria Hotel that along with the production kitchen and The San Anton satellite kitchens, form one of the three kitchens in our hotels.

All emergency services, with the fire brigade arriving from Xemxija station within seven minutes, attended and the fire was put out within less than five minutes of their arrival. All emergency services were called out as a matter of routine precaution.

The hotel staff activated a long practiced “Fire Evacuation Plan” and all clients made an orderly evacuation to the pre-determined assembly point. A head count and two independent checks, the latter with the assistance of the Fire Brigade, were made of the property to ensure that clients had evacuated safely.

The damage sustained was to the actual fryer, and a bain marie unit, as well as some wall tiles that came off with the heat. Repairs were immediately taken into hand and the kitchen was again in operation by 5.30pm the same evening where it served 455 meals.

Some of the older clientele who suffer from asthmatic conditions were treated in the ambulances by the emergency medical team. We can also confirm that five members of the hotel staff were taken to St Luke’s Hospital for check up and were discharged soon afterwards.

The Santa Maria Hotel & San Anton Hotels & Apartments operate 450 bedrooms / apartments with a total of 1422 beds, has an “A” standard of fire rating classification issued by the Federation of United Kingdom Tour Operators. It is one of the foremost hotel operations on the island, that invests thousands of liri in staff training and yesterday was the day that this investment came into fruition. The result being that there were no serious injuries among the hotel staff who fought the fire and that all clients were evacuated unhurt before the Fire Department arrived and the damage was limited to the immediate vicinity of the fire.

Members of the Civil Protection Department and the doctors who attended complimented us on the way the situation was handled and the professional and correct approach /actions of our staff.

We would also like to place on record our thanks to the Fire Department, Civil Protection Department, doctors, nurses, ambulance crew and police who came on site as well as the casualty doctors, radiographers, nurses and staff at the Casualty Department at St Luke’s Hospital for their very professional, well-organised and prompt actions – they could not be faulted.

Charles Micallef

Group General Manager

Cavendish Hotels