Probe launched after toddler’s fall from Blackpool hotel window

Council officers are carrying out an investigation after an 18-month-old girl plummeted from a Blackpool hotel window.
A police officer outside the Rooms Inn hotel in Albert Road, Blackpool, after a girl, two, fell from a second-floor window shortly before 9am on Tuesday, August 20, 2019 (Picture: Dave Nelson)A police officer outside the Rooms Inn hotel in Albert Road, Blackpool, after a girl, two, fell from a second-floor window shortly before 9am on Tuesday, August 20, 2019 (Picture: Dave Nelson)
A police officer outside the Rooms Inn hotel in Albert Road, Blackpool, after a girl, two, fell from a second-floor window shortly before 9am on Tuesday, August 20, 2019 (Picture: Dave Nelson)

The toddler remains in a ‘serious’ condition in hospital.

She fell from a second storey window to the rear of The Rooms Inn, on Albert Road, shortly before 9am on Tuesday.

The girl was found by Kevin Twiss, owner of The Lumada Hotel next door, who noticed the tot lying face-down in an alleyway behind the property.

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Emergency services were called at around 8.45am, and the girl was taken by land ambulance to a helicopter, and airlifted to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.

It is believed she suffered a fractured skull, broken bones and chest injuries.

A Blackpool Council spokesman said: “Council officers visited the hotel on the day and we are investigating the incident, but obviously the police are taking the lead on it.”

A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive, the UK’s government agency responsible for the regulation and enforcement of workplace health and safety, said the incident was being dealt with by the police and local authority.

Police investigations into the child’s fall continue.

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Det Insp Alisa Wilson, of Blackpool Police, said: “This incident has left a young child with some very significant injuries and I would appeal for anyone who saw what happened or who has any information which could assist to get in touch.”

Anyone with information should call police on 101 quoting log number 258 of August 20th or independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Mr Twiss, 35, said he looked out of his window while hearing crying while cooking breakfast at around 8.40am on Tuesday.

He said: “I looked out the side window and couldn’t see anything, and then I heard it again and when I looked outside that was when I saw the child on the floor. I wondered if I was seeing it right.”

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Mr Twiss said he noticed the girl was injured, and said: “I ran outside and when the parents weren’t there I shouted up to them. From there I jumped over the wall and wasn’t sure what to do and I picked her up, and at that point the father started trying to kick the gate open to get to the child, so I passed her through a gap in the gate, and from there that was it.

“He took the child and went back into the hotel and we phoned an ambulance. It was just so quick. I picked her up and her dad was there, so I passed her straight over.

““It was a horrible thing and I’m just praying that we don’t hear any bad news. I just hope she’s all right.”

His wife, Wendy, 44, said: “It must’ve been about 8.35am or 8.40am. We could hear a noise. It sounded awful. We all looked out of the window but we couldn’t see anything.

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“My husband didn’t think anything of it. Next thing you know he had a look out another window and said ‘Oh my God, it’s a baby’. All our guests ran downstairs into the back alley.”

The group used a ladder to clamber over a wall into the next door yard, where the two-year-old was lying seriously hurt.

Wendy added: “My husband was shouting up to the window, ‘Get out, your baby’s on the floor’ and the next thing you know he picked the baby up and passed her to the dad at the back gate. I was in 
shock.”