HOTEL guests have praised firefighters for saving their temporary home from destruction as a blaze threatened the Devonshire Hotel on Marine Parade, Folkestone, early this morning. Eight fire engines and 55 firemen arrived at the hotel just before 4am and fought the blaze for more than two hours.

The guests were led to safety as crews tackled the fire on the fourth and fifth floors. Mother-of-seven Janet Baigent said: “The firemen got in just in time

before the fire would have got to my room. We could see the flames outside our window coming up from the room below.”

She and her husband Keith ushered their children down from the fifth floor through thick smoke to join the other guests outside the building.

Rupert Roberts, assistant divisional officer in charge of fighting the fire, said: “The crews have done an excellent job. The building is in a block of three and the fire could easily have spread along the block.”

The Devonshire Hotel, which was in the last phase of a long renovation process, is used by the council to provide emergency accommodation. The residents have been moved into the neighbouring Gran Canaria Hotel.

This morning guests were returning to salvage their belongings from the building. Many of the rooms have water and smoke damage and property was damaged as teams of firemen tore through the building.

Some residents say the fire was started when a guest fell asleep while smoking. When he awoke he tried to smother the flames with a pillow, which also caught fire.