Disability campaigner claims she was left waiting for help during hotel fire alarm

A disability campaigner has claimed she was abandoned in a Premier Inn hotel room after being told to “stay put” in the event of a fire alarm.

Dr Hannah Barham-Brown, a trainee GP and governor of accessibility charity Motability, had been staying at the Whitbread-owned chain’s London County Hall hotel when the fire alarm sounded shortly after 1am on March 23.

Wheelchair-user Barham-Brown said that when she checked-in she had been advised to “stay put” in the event of a fire alarm and wait for a member of the hotel team to come and assist her out of the building.

But, in a series of tweets recording her experience she said: “It swiftly became apparent that no one was coming, so I figured the bricked staircase on the external part of the building looked safest, and so followed others there. Other customers were great, asking if I needed help. I just asked them to let any staff know where I was. No one came.”

Barham-Brown said two colleagues eventually assisted her down four flights of stairs to evacuate the building. She added: “I’ll be broken for days, but thank God I had the option.”

Premier Inn has disputed the campaigner’s report and said its fire evacuation procedures were followed correctly with a team member dispatched to help her evacuate “within minutes”.

A spokesperson said: “We have robust fire evacuation procedures and are confident these were followed correctly on the occasion of this false alarm – a team member was dispatched to assist Dr Barham-Brown within minutes of it sounding but found she had already chosen to leave. We have already reached out to the guest and welcome the opportunity to speak about any aspect of her experience directly.”

Premier Inn’s statement contrasts to reports from Barham-Brown who claims she was told that after team members had been allocated to different roles no one had been left to come and get her.

She added: “They were going to leave me in my room, in a potentially burning building. I was not a priority, as a disabled person. I was just left there.”

Barnham-Brown also reported that she had experienced difficulties when entering the hotel earlier in the day and exiting it during the evacuation due to a disabled access gate being locked.

Premier Inn added: “Premier Inn London County Hall forms part of the wider County Hall Complex which has Listed status, and this places constraints on the way we can operate this hotel. For example, previous schemes to enhance access for mobility-impaired guests, including the proposed installation of ramps at the front of the building have been unsuccessful because of this. For this reason, our booking process clearly explains that our team members will need to help guests who use wheelchairs in and out of the building, and we apologise for the inconvenience this understandably may cause.

“We are sorry Dr Barham-Brown was frustrated with many aspects of her stay at this hotel, including finding the security gates - which are managed by the landlord - shut. Premier Inn do not operate these gates nor have keys to them, but our team were of course pleased to assist in contacting the third-party security team to allow access - we will be picking this up with the landlord.”

Picture: Google