Grand Burstin Fire: How Hundreds Got Out Alive — and Why Folkestone’s Crisis Isn’t Over

Four days after flames and thick smoke poured from beneath Folkestone’s Grand Burstin Hotel, firefighters were back.

At 8.36am on Wednesday, Kent Fire and Rescue Service was called after smoke was again seen coming from the fire-damaged building. Three appliances were initially sent. This time firefighters weren’t going inside. With the structure still causing concern, a firefighting robot was deployed, using water to extinguish hotspots and soak the surrounding area. The culprit was believed to be smouldering laundry. By 4.55pm crews had gone, although routine return visits were planned.

That small flare-up rather neatly sums up where Folkestone finds itself after one of the biggest fires the town has seen for years. The flames may be out, but the emergency certainly isn’t.

Around 280 people had to get out of the Grand Burstin after the fire broke out shortly after 1am on Saturday 19 September. At its height, Kent Fire and Rescue Service deployed 26 fire engines, together with a height vehicle and specialist units. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus fought what the service later described as a fire believed to have started in the basement. Remarkably, KFRS recorded no fire-related injuries.

Then came the second evacuation.

Concerns that the intensity of the basement fire had weakened the hotel meant 90 people living in neighbouring Pavilion Court were moved from their homes. Folkestone & Hythe District Council has since issued an emergency prohibition notice stopping people entering the block, while structural specialists investigate whether the damaged hotel presents a collapse risk. Those residents have been put into hotels, other accommodation or have gone to stay with family and friends.

So this isn’t simply a story about a hotel fire. It’s now about dozens of people displaced from their homes, hundreds of former guests waiting for belongings, businesses losing customers, hotel employees facing an uncertain future, road closures around one of Folkestone’s main visitor areas — and a substantial damaged building whose immediate future remains unknown.

At Tuesday night’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, council leader Cllr Jim Martin offered the clearest account yet from inside the local authority’s emergency response.

“The last 96 hours have been a real test for the district,” he told councillors.

Martin (pictured) said structural engineers continued to examine the building and were regularly updating the council. He confirmed the relocation of Pavilion Court’s occupants was precautionary but necessary because engineers believed there was a risk that part of the hotel could collapse.

“These aren’t our tenants,” he said of Pavilion Court. “The block, they’re in private occupation, but public safety is our primary concern.”

That distinction matters. FHDC doesn’t own Pavilion Court, but when people suddenly find themselves unable to sleep in their own homes, the council can’t simply shrug and point towards a landlord. Its housing officers have instead been providing welfare support and arranging accommodation while the engineers determine when — or whether — residents can safely return.

Some residents have also been separated from pets and possessions.

Martin told the committee RSPCA volunteers had entered Pavilion Court and removed animals, including “cats, dogs, birds, spiders, snakes” and others. Access to clothing and everyday belongings had proved harder. Residents had originally expected to be out for perhaps a day or two; suddenly school uniforms and other necessities were becoming a problem.

And there’s still no firm date for their return.

A fire which could have ended very differently

Martin’s account of what happened inside the Grand Burstin deserves attention for another reason. He isn’t merely a politician commenting on a fire. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, has previously stated that he holds a NEBOSH qualification in Fire Risk and Safety Management and co-authored a book on Grenfell and construction-industry reform.

He told councillors that what immediately struck him was that fire-resistant construction and compartmentation appeared to have done their job.

The fire was in the basement car park and, according to Martin, was likely to have involved vehicles. He described the resulting heat as “very, very, very intense”, saying it was that heat which caused the serious structural damage.

Yet, he said, “the fire resistant material was fire resistant” and “the compartmentation that’s required by building regulations held up”. His assessment was that the fire had been contained in the part of the structure where it began rather than travelling unchecked throughout the hotel.

That is Martin’s professional observation rather than the conclusion of the fire investigation. Kent Fire and Rescue Service hasn’t yet published a final technical report on the building’s fire protection or the performance of individual fire-safety systems, while Kent Police’s criminal investigation remains open.

There’s another part of the response which may eventually prove even more important: evacuation.

Martin praised Grand Burstin staff for getting everybody out quickly, saying they had acted “very, very promptly, very, very sensibly” and followed the hotel’s evacuation plan.

He went further.

“I think probably that decision made very, very early by the staff at Britannia Hotels probably saved lives,” he said, immediately adding: “Obviously I can’t say that conclusively.”

His point was simple. Buildings can be repaired or rebuilt. The thing every part of an emergency plan is supposed to prevent is people dying.

Britannia’s own website now simply states that the Grand Burstin is closed. Guests wanting information about possessions have been directed to a dedicated response email, while people with future bookings are being given a separate contact number. There’s currently no reopening date.

Martin also revealed that the council’s own emergency response plan was activated immediately.

“We didn’t hesitate,” he said. “We have an emergency response plan, and that was kicked into place as soon as the telephone call was received.”

He described the evacuation, judged purely as an emergency operation, as a “huge success”: everyone got out, and the injuries he understood had occurred were largely bumps and scrapes suffered during the evacuation rather than burns or other fire-related injuries.

The response didn’t stop with blue lights.

Three Hills Sports Park opened as a welfare centre in the middle of the night. The Salvation Army provided blankets, hot drinks and practical support. Morrisons supplied milk, bacon, bread and cheese. Fire service volunteers, paramedics, police, council staff and community organisations were involved. Martin told councillors that Three Hills responded to the first telephone call at around 2.30am and had people on the ground almost immediately.

That part of the story deserves remembering after the fire engines disappear.

The economic firebreak hasn’t worked

For businesses around the harbour, however, the consequences arrived almost immediately.

At the Harbour Fish Bar, manager Berke Teke estimated trade had fallen by about two-thirds, saying at one point the business had served just ten customers in a day. Staffing hours had been reduced and temporary closure had even been considered as the usual flow of visitors vanished behind cordons and road restrictions.

Businesses on the Harbour Arm remain open and accessible on foot, and councillors were told on Tuesday that alterations to road arrangements were being made to improve access for surrounding traders and the harbour. But losing a 550-room hotel beside one of Folkestone’s principal visitor attractions just as the town heads into the quieter autumn and winter season is plainly something which could reverberate well beyond the Burstin itself.

There’s also the question of the people whose wages came from inside the hotel.

Concerns have already been raised about staff, particularly workers whose hours and income depend upon the hotel actually being open. The Burstin is a large operation: 550 rooms, restaurants, bars, entertainment facilities, conference space, leisure facilities and the staff required to operate them. With the building closed indefinitely, what happens to those workers could become one of the next major consequences of the fire.

And hanging over everything is the police investigation.

Kent Police says the fire is being treated as suspicious. A 38-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, both from the local area, were arrested in connection with the incident on Sunday and have since been released while enquiries continue. Police officers remain involved in investigation work around the building. No allegation against either person has yet been proved.

Anyone with CCTV, dashcam footage or other information which may assist detectives can contact Kent Police on 01622 652006, quoting 46/155727/26.

For now, Folkestone has got through the first and most dangerous part of this emergency remarkably intact: hundreds of people escaped a serious basement fire and nobody died.

But there’s another stage beginning.

A hotel remains closed. Structural engineers are deciding what can safely remain standing. Ninety neighbours can’t go home. Traders are counting lost takings. Employees don’t know what comes next. Police are investigating why the fire started. And on Wednesday morning, four days after the first alarm, a robot was still spraying water into the Grand Burstin.

The fire is out.

Its consequences aren’t.

The Shepway Vox Team

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