It was a rude and early awakening at the Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort in St Julian’s on Sunday morning – an electrical fault which developed in one of the motors of the pastry kitchen cold rooms led to a fire and a full evacuation.

Five hundred and fifty guests had to be herded out at 5.45am. Radisson described the blaze as “a small fire” but said that in accordance with the health and safety procedures of the resort, and in order to ensure the safety of all the guests and staff within the property, a full evacuation of the building was initiated as soon as the situation was assessed.

“The evacuation took no longer than eight minutes to be completed and was carried out in an orderly and organised manner with full cooperation from all concerned,” Radisson said.

It added that once the fire was controlled, all smoke was cleared from the building, and the property was certified to be safe, all guests were asked to re-enter the building at 7.20am. By 8am, everything was back to normal and full services resumed within the hotel.

The resort’s fire team, led by chief of security Joseph Aloisio and night duty manager Paul Bonanno, ensured that the whole process was handled with utmost efficiency with no risks taken at any point. They were in turn supported by station officers Tony Pisani and Tonio Portelli from the Civil Protection department who, together with their team, extinguished the fire within a very short time.

“The response time of the civil protection department was very fast, with the first fire engine arriving at the resort within 10 minutes of the report being made,” the Radisson said.