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, t