‘Devastated’ Cairns COVID-19 hotel quarantine guests to be moved hundreds of kilometres away after fire

Dozens of people evacuated from a blaze at a quarantine hotel in Cairns say they have been told they’ll be flown thousands of kilometres away for their rest of their isolation period.

One hotel guest, Cairns mother Simmone Eletr, said up to 40 people were told they would be transferred to the Gold Coast because there weren’t enough rooms in the only other quarantine hotel in Cairns.

“It’s devastating,” said Ms Eletr, who had just started her 14 days of quarantine when the fire took hold of the 11-storey Pacific Hotel on Sunday.

Ms Eletr fought back tears as she told the ABC she had just returned from Newcastle in New South Wales to visit her father-in-law before he died from cancer.

She said it was hard enough being separated from her children in the same city, but the prospect of flying two hours south to the Gold Coast was too much.

“I’ve got three small children. They’re at home with my parents. It’s ridiculous.”

Ms Eletr spoke to the ABC from a room at another hotel where dozens of people had been told to wait for updates.

“At the moment, they’re saying there’s not enough rooms at the hotel, so they’re sending everybody (here) to the Gold Coast.”

On Sunday afternoon, Queensland Police said all evacuees had been relocated, but didn’t specify where. 

Earlier, Queensland’s acting Chief Health Officer Peter Aitken said some could be transferred to the other quarantine hotel in Cairns or to Brisbane. 

Queensland Health did not respond to an ABC request for an update late Sunday about where the evacuees would be sent.

Fire destroys two rooms 

It’s alleged a 31-year-old woman lit the fire underneath a bed in the hotel on Sunday morning.

She has been charged with one count each of arson and wilful damage and will appear in court on Monday.

Miranda Barczuk was on her final day of 14 days’ quarantine when she said she heard the hotel’s fire alarm ringing, then muffled voices in the hall outside her room.

“I was actually in the bathroom putting on my make-up,” she said. “We’ve had a couple of false alarms, so I didn’t think anything of it and then I went on the balcony and had a look.

“There was thick black smoke coming out from the apartment a couple of stories above me, and I just started to panic.

“One minute they said ‘stay in your room’, and then the next minute they said ‘you need to evacuate’.”

Ms Barczuk tried to leave via the stairwell near her ninth-floor room, but it was filling up with smoke, so she and others, including mothers with newborn babies, tried the opposite stairwell and eventually made it to the ground floor.

Ms Barczuk said she had hoped to leave quarantine after a difficult few weeks during which she travelled interstate to attend her father’s funeral.

“With my father, and then quarantine, and then this massive fire, it really shook me up a bit and there were a few people that were a bit distraught.”

First day of quarantine

From the waiting room, Ms Eletr pointed out the apparent contradiction of putting people who are meant to be isolating in the same room.

“If you have COVID you’re going to spread it if you cough, so what’s the point,” Ms Eletr said. “Everyone has to be tested again because everybody has been mingling together.”

Earlier, Dr Aitken said no-one in the hotel had tested positive to COVID-19. 

Another person in quarantine, Jarrod Elias, said it felt like there had been an oversight in contingency planning.

“It’s overcrowded in here,” he said. “I have no mobile power left and I’m also missing [epilepsy] medication, it’s back in the room.

“They said they would get it for me, you think it would be a priority. It seems like there’s a lack of contingency for this.”

Chief Superintendent Chris Hodgman said police were focused on the evacuees’ welfare.

“It’s been quite traumatic for some of those people, so that’s our focus at the moment,” he said.

“They’ve got all their worldly belongings with them in the rooms, so we need to get that back to them as best we can,” he said.

“Imagine being woken up at seven o’clock with this incident on a Sunday morning.”

Dozens were seen gathered in a local park as emergency services attended the blaze. It wasn’t clear then where they would go or when they’d be reunited with their belongings.

“It’s all in limbo, they’re trying to work it all out,” said Ms Eletr.