Calls for fire safety to be mandatory on overseas holidays

Cherie James was holidaying in a five-star hotel in Marmaris when she and husband Sean were woken in the night by screams of ‘fire’. Their top-floor room became filled with thick black smoke and they were forced to seek solace on the balcony for three hours until they were rescued.

No fire alarms sounded and no sprinkler system activated, and Cherie and Sean found there was no escape to get them the five floors down to safety.

Cherie was so traumatised by her ordeal that tour operator TUI arranged for her to go home early, and despite pleas for answers from the package holiday company about where the fire started and how, she has had no response.

Since the trauma, in April this year, Cherie has suffered from PTSD and is having counselling. She also had to seek treatment in the UK for a burn she suffered to her face, which then turned septic.

Now, Cherie, from Blackwood in Caerphilly, is calling for all tour operators to make it mandatory for hotels to have appropriate fire safety measures in place.

“You go on holiday to have a fantastic time, not to think about things like fire safety, which I took for granted – you just presume that’s all been taken care of, but it’s not always the case,” says Cherie.

“In the UK, all hotels have fire alarms which are tested regularly, it’s just what happens in this day and age. But overseas, clearly it is different. When I tell people what happened to us, they say ‘It’s because it’s Turkey’ – but we booked with TUI, so why aren’t they checking to make sure fire safety measures are taken and that they’re working?

“I don’t think they should be sending people to hotels if they’re at risk. You never think it’s going to happen, but my experience shows it does. Me and my husband were saying our goodbyes to each other, certain we were going to die, and that will haunt me forever.

“I can’t face going abroad again, so we’ve booked an AirBNB cottage, and it says really clearly on the listing that there is a fire safety system in place – shouldn’t the companies who are sending us to hotels around the world do this as well?”

Cherie is being supported by travel specialists at law firm Slater and Gordon, a passionate advocate of the need for better standards for holidaymakers.

“This was an absolutely horrendous ordeal for Cherie and the many other holidaymakers who were involved in this fire, and Cherie is suffering badly from the impact of that. The trauma and memory of what happened that night will most likely stay with her forever,” says Darren Dyke, Associate (Litigation Executive) at Slater and Gordon.

“Holidaymakers need the assurance that they and their families are going to be safe, and fire safety should be an absolute priority for tour operators. Functioning safety systems in overseas accommodation should be non-negotiable and operators really need to be upping their game in ensuring this is routinely the case. We wholeheartedly support Cherie in her calls for operators to ensure life-saving safety systems are mandatory.”