Brit businessman died after getting trapped in spa when fire broke out

A father-of-two from Peterborough died from smoke inhalation when a hotel spa where he was relaxing in Morocco caught fire, a coroner has ruled.

Anthony Barnes, 48, was booked in for a massage at Marrakech’s Jaal Riad resort when a small explosion was heard on March 22, 2023.

An inquest into his death which concluded this week was told staff in the spa heard the sound ‘followed by an outbreak of flames’ and rushed to get help from other hotel employees.

But by the time the workers arrived, the smoke was too thick to enter and attempt to extinguish the fire.

Fire crews arrived around 20 minutes later but ‘struggled to gain access and did not seem to have adequate breathing equipment’, coroner Caroline Jones said.

Reports at the time indicated a hotel worker perished in the same fire, though the individual has not been named.

Mr Barnes, who was the director of a recruitment company he co-owned, had been on a trip with colleagues.

They were by the hotel pool when they saw staff running to the building, which was giving off smoke from its roof.

Mr Barnes’ colleagues spotted a man on the roof ‘appearing to be unscrewing panels to allow the smoke to escape’.

A man was carried out on a stretcher around 90 minutes after the fire broke out.

Mr Barnes’ colleagues realised it was him, later telling investigators he did not seem to be moving at the time.

He was pronounced dead later that day, the inquest heard.

The coroner found there was no indication the fire was started on purpose and ruled his death accidental.

However what caused the fire has not been established.

The cause of death was found to be smoke inhalation, which aggravated an underlying and apparently undiagnosed coronary artery disease.

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