A WOODEN ladle is being blamed for a call out to a fire in the sauna complex at the St Michael's Hotel in Falmouth this morning.

Smoke was seen coming from the basement area of a hotel leisure complex in Stracey Road at around 7am. All the occupants of the hotel were evacuated safely. A smoking ladle was found to be the cause of the smoke in the sauna area of the health complex in Stracey Road.

Simon Kerr, commercial director at the hotel, said: "The sauna has been closed for maintenance for the last few days. A member of staff came in this morning as part of the opening up routine and switched on the sauna which they shouldn't have.

"One of the ladles had been left on the coals and as they heated up it started to smoke and set off the alarms. There was zero damage to the hotel leisure club and sauna which was back up and open in one hour."

Two appliances from Falmouth Fire Station and one from Truro Community Fire Station and a Flexi Duty Officer attended the incident.

Firefighters used two breathing apparatus, one hosereel, one safety jet, one CO2 extinguisher and thermal image camera to tackle the fire.

A fire investigation was carried out and the cause was confirmed as accidental. All appliances have now left the scene.