She saved lives by banging on doors till her wrist broke, say hotel guests after fire

Melinda Sharpe woke up at 6:50 a.m. NT on Saturday to a horrific scene. She was at the Driftwood Inn in Deer Lake, N.L. with a girls' volleyball team. The hotel was on fire.

Sharpe wasn't woken up by a smoke alarm or a sprinkler. She was woken up by the sound of her neighbour yelling in fear.

She says there were no smoke alarms or sprinklers going off that she could see or hear.

Sharpe didn't waste any time. She got out of bed and started banging on people's doors.

Sharpe was busy saving lives by banging on doors so hard, she hurt her arm.

"I was hitting all the room doors really hard and I think I got (it) broke," Sharpe told CBC News.

"I took off down the stairs and started pounding on all the girls' rooms telling them to get out. 'There's a fire, hurry up,' like, every hallway, going down, trying to get everybody out," Sharpe says.

"By the time I turned around from the hallway to come back out, I couldn't see a thing. It was literally smoke everywhere," she said.

"We had girls falling down. They had no glasses, they couldn't see. One of the teachers couldn't see. She was crawling her way through the door.

"No fire alarms going off, no sprinklers, no nothing. Just freaking madness."

In a video sent to CBC News on Monday, alarm bells could be heard from across the street from the hotel.

Sharpe has questions about how the hotel was allowed to operate. She wants someone held accountable.

"I'm just wondering how the place got passed (inspection) because there's absolutely no fire extinguishers, no sprinklers, no nothing. I know as a person who has worked in places before, how important it is for the fire extinguishers to get checked monthly? Like the safety call. There's no muster station. I don't understand how that is even allowed."

One of the parents pulled a fire alarm, but Sharpe didn't hear any alarms go off even after pulling it.

Gloria Bender and Ellen Barnes were in a room when they heard Sharpe banging on their door.

"This lady was going around downstairs everywhere, banging on doors. There was no fire alarms. I didn't hear anything," Barnes told CBC News.

Bender, Barnes and other hotel guests scrambled to escape through the back door.

"Nothing. No, alarm, no sprinklers or nothing. This lady that banged on the door, she was the one that actually [saved] our lives," Bender said.

"There was a gentleman there from Bishop's Falls. He's a fireman. He was actually a lifesaver. He also directed the girls out of the hotel. We have to thank those two people because without those two people, this would be a total recovery of bodies," Barnes said.

Barnes and Bender said no hotel staff were in sight. Most of their belongings, including clothing were left in the hotel and burned.

The Deer Lake Hotel and Salvation Army supported the evacuated guests, providing them with food and clean clothes.

The fire is now under investigation by police and fire officials.

It's unclear what safety measures were in place at the hotel.

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