TWO sisters from Greater Manchester have emerged as the heroines of the Cornish hotel inferno after risking their own lives to save 12 guests from the blaze.
Kirsty Schofield, 20, and sister Emma, 17, ran up and down stairs and corridors to bang on doors to alert sleeping holidaymakers. One man died and two people are still unaccounted for after the blaze at the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay.Kirsty and Emma, from Droylsden, ignored their own safety to warn as many guests as possible to get out of the burning building.
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The girls were on holiday with their gran Linda Morgan.
The sisters were sitting in the hotel lobby when the fire alarm went off.
Kirsty said: "We heard the alarm and realised that it was a real fire because some of the lights had gone out. We were actually looking for a trip switch with the night porter when we began to smell burning.
"A lot of the guests were older and had gone to bed and would have been fast asleep. We realised that we had to do something and we were very worried about our Nan who was on the top floor.
"We ran up to her room and banged on every door we could shouting `fire, fire, you have to get out.' Most people just stumbled to the door and did not seem to be aware of what was happening.
"We got to our Nan's room and she was asleep. She came to the door and we shouted to her to get dressed quickly. As she was getting dressed, we ran up and down the corridor hammering on people's doors."
Emma said: "We could smell smoke.We must have knocked on between 15 and 20 doors. A lot of people had heard the fire alarm but were going to ignore it.
"We just did what we could and did not really think about ourselves. We were worried about our Nan but we just tried to help as many people as we could. It is frightening to think that many more people could have been trapped and died if we had not told them to get out."
Linda said: ""If Emma and Kirsty had not acted so bravely, I am sure that I could have been killed and that many others would have died. I am so proud of them because they did not think about themselves - just helping others."
Kirsty added: "People said we were heroes but anyone would have done the same.
"There were lots of people helping others - the night porter and the bar manager helped many guests escape. It was not just us."
The two sisters returned home with their gran yesterday having lost all their clothes and personal possessions in the blaze.
Emma said: "We just had the clothes we were wearing on Friday night. But clothes can be replaced - we are just grateful that we are alive and that our Nan is safe."
A smoke alarm saved the lives of a family of nine after fire broke out under their home in Oldham, firefighters said.
The incident happened just after 6am today at an off licence on Ashton Road in Hathershaw.
It is understood that members of a family living above the shop had managed to clamber out of the burning building and onto a garage roof at the back of the property.
The passer-by then helped two of them down and alerted fire crews who rushed to the scene.
When they arrived they found an intense blaze which had been worsened due to closed metal shutters at the front of the shop.
They managed to bring two adults and five children down from the roof before entering the building.
A fire service spokesperson said that a smoke alarm had raised the family - allowing their escape.
He said: "It is quite clear that if it wasn't for the smoke alarm there would have been a number of fatalities."
Heavy smoke was visible for miles around and emergency services received a number of calls.
Those rescued from the property were treated at the scene by paramedics for minor smoke inhalation.
Crews were still tackling the blaze three hours after it started and a fire investigation team is due to look into what caused it.
It is thought that the building will not have to be demolished.
