Emergency services were expected to begin a search this morning for two people still missing after a fire erupted in a Cornish hotel.

The fire has already claimed the life of a man who tried to escape by jumping from the third or fourth floor of the Penhallow Hotel, in Newquay. Anybody left in the rubble would have little chance of survival, police said.

As the rubble of the hotel smouldered yesterday, the Fire Brigade faced criticism that firefighters were hindered by a 90-minute wait while vital equipment arrived from Plymouth, more than 50 miles away.

The fire spread at devastating speed in the early hours of Saturday as firefighters waited for an aerial ladder platform.

Both Newquay and Truro, 15 miles away, possess the equipment but both were under repair.

Matt Littmoden, Cornwall’s chief fire officer, said: “If both break at the same time, obviously both have to be repaired at the same time.”

The Fire Brigades Union yesterday said that cuts in the area were dangerous. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, said: “We have to learn lessons for the future. The FBU has heard reports for three years that the numbers of aerial appliances were being cut back across the UK because of cost. There must be no more cutbacks on aerial appliances.” He added: “We have been concerned this summer about cuts in manpower in Cornwall. In the height of the holiday season in particular we must have sufficient firefighters.

“We have also been concerned at cuts in nighttime cover. The first call to the Penhallow Hotel came at 12.30. There were not enough crews in the area to man the second pump.”

The investigation into the fire was hindered by strong winds. The investigators will examine how the fire engulfed the Edwardian building, owned by Holdsworth Hotels, so quickly.

One theory is that it spread up a lift shaft. A guest has said that the shaft was guarded by a grille rather than modern doors. Survivors yesterday described how guests, many of them elderly, screamed and banged on windows as their rooms filled with smoke.

Rosemary Snook, 59, had just gone to bed on the first floor when the alarms went off just after midnight. Speaking at the scene yesterday and visibly shaking, Mrs Snook, of Richmond in North Yorkshire, described the panic as guests scrambled to the fire escapes. “After the alarms went off I grabbed what I’m standing in now and rushed to the nearest fire exit, but there was smoke coming from it.”

Harry Hill, who had just checked in to the hotel, where he was celebrating his 50th birthday, described how the wooden fire escapes caught fire.

“The speed of the blaze was terrifying. There was an explosion as part of the building collapsed and then it really took off. Looking at it and thinking about the type of people who were staying there, I really don’t see how anybody would have survived.”

Four people were treated in hospital. Police have revealed that a burglary took place a few hours before the fire was spotted, but police say that they are not yet linking the incidents.

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