Candle starts blaze (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Candle starts blaze

A FIRE that caused £10,000-£15,000-worth of damage at a Stow-on-the-Wold hotel is alleged to have been started by two guests having a romantic, candle-lit bath.

Nobody was hurt in the fire at Wyck Hill House Hotel, on Burford Road, because the night porter evacuated the 10 guests staying there at the time within three minutes of the alarm being raised at about 3.30am on Monday.

Firefighters in three engines, two from Stow and one from Moreton-in-Marsh, needed nearly one hour, 40 minutes to extinguish the blaze with hoses and breathing apparatus.

Pete Muckle, Stow Fire Station commander, confirmed the blaze - which destroyed the bathroom and left the adjoining bedroom smoke damaged - was started by lighted candles being placed around the en suite bath.

Colin Heaney, the hotel's manager, said it was not yet known if the two guests, who were not local, brought the candles to the hotel or obtained them from staff.

He said the "younger couple" were asleep in bed when they were awoken by flames roaring from the bathroom. They raised the alarm.

Mr Heaney said: "They obviously didn't make sure the candles were out before they went to bed.

"It hasn't affected our business, except we are one room short. The hotel is open and fully operational."