Crathorne Hall hotel working ‘flat-out' to re-open after devastating fire

02 October 2014 by
Crathorne Hall hotel working ‘flat-out' to re-open after devastating fire

The team at Crathorne Hall hotel in Yarm, North Yorkshire, is working "flat-out" to get the business operational again following a devastating fire which caused extensive damage to one wing of the Victorian property.

Douglas Waddell, operations director of Hand Picked Hotels, which owns and operates the four-red-AA-star, 37-bedroom hotel, arrived at the property yesterday afternoon, four and a half hours after the blaze broke out in the property's 17-bedroom York wing.

"It was heart-wrenching to see the hotel essentially fighting for its life with flames leaping 20 feet high above the property," he told The Caterer.

"But the most important thing was that the team did a wonderful job in evacuating the building and no-one was hurt. It is very humbling to hear what a wonderful job they did."

Twenty guests and 20 staff escaped from the building after the fire is believed to have broken out in the roof of the Edwardian hotel.

Around 100 fire fighters from three services in North Yorkshire, Durham and Darlington and Cleveland took more than eight hours to bring the blaze under control. The cause of the fire is currently being investigated.

Crathorne Hall, which stands in 15 acres of grounds on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, is now expected to be closed for the immediate future.

"Our immediate priority is to find alternative venues for wedding and other guests booked into the hotel," explained Waddell. "We had weddings booked in on Friday and Saturday this week and we have already found alternative accommodation for them.

"We will then work flat-out to get the hotel back up and running again. We are currently assessing the extent of the damage.

"The main part of the hotel, which contains 20 bedrooms and the Edwardian dining room has suffered smoke damage, while the York wing will need to be re-roofed and totally restored."

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking