North Adelaide hotel fire victim Brendan Betar’s story of escape

One of the men hospitalised after the North Adelaide hotel blaze has shared his harrowing story of escape, saying he could still taste battery acid weeks later.

As Brendan Betar crawled through thick smoke to the safety of a balcony door in his North Adelaide hotel room, battery acid fumes filled his lungs.

The Broken Hill man, 54, travelled to Adelaide for a trip to visit the state’s zoos but ended up in the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s intensive care unit after the fire broke out on April 24.

Mr Betar is one of three men rushed to the intensive care unit after the fire including Vish Sharma, 44, who suffered burns and smoke inhalation.

Two weeks on, Mr Betar was concerned having only been reimbursed half the $540 he paid to stay at the hotel for three nights from Saturday.

The fire at the Comfort Adelaide Meridien Hotel on Melbourne St around 6.30am on Sunday. Picture: 7 News

“The decent thing to do is at least not charge me to stay in a place that I couldn’t stay in because it burnt,” he said.

However, minutes after The Advertiser published this report online, the hotel said it had fully reimbursed Mr Betar.

“We have been in close contact with our guests and can confirm that the guest you have referenced has been fully refunded,” general manager Craig Lunn said.

Brendan Betar spent three days in the ICU after suffering smoke inhalation in the North Adelaide hotel fire. Picture: supplied

Mr Betar was first alerted to the commotion about 6.30am when a woman was screaming in a nearby room at the Comfort Hotel Meridien.

“When the lady started getting very loud I thought, look I’m going to have to address this … I got up and went to the door and could see the door to the hallway was open and smoke was starting to come in,” he said.

“That’s when I realised s**t, I’m in trouble here, and I have to do something.”

Mr Betar’s first instinct was to run to the furthest room – the bedroom – and stick his head out the window.

“All I cared about was getting fresh air,” he said.

He watched as people in nearby rooms began throwing their luggage out their rooms to safety as fire crews arrived at the scene within five minutes.

When a firefighter told Mr Betar to make his way to the balcony he thought crawling through the smoke was the safest option,

“That’s probably when I got all the inhalation because I had to get from that room to the doorway, so I had to crawl on the ground … to get out the balcony door,” he said.

After climbing down the ladder from his room on the third floor Mr Betar was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he remained for three days for treatment of smoke inhalation.

Fire crews at the hotel. Picture Emma Brasier

Brendan Betar spent three days in ICU after the North Adelaide hotel fire last month. Picture: supplied

Police have declared the cause of fire – put down to recharging batteries – as non-suspicious and no charges have been laid.

Now recovered, Mr Betar, who owns a hardware store in Broken Hill, still has to talk quietly to avoid straining his throat and tasted battery acid in the weeks following the incident.

“Even on Monday I was still tasting it, it’s just horrible, breathing that and tasting it in your mouth,” he said.

Firefighters outside the Comfort Hotel Meridien in Melbourne Street, North Adelaide, after the fire. Picture: Emma Brasier

Damage to the hotel’s exterior after the fire. Picture: Emma Brasier

“I did get an email from the Meridien asking me to give them a review, I don’t know if I should do that review – my mother always said if you haven’t got anything good to say don’t say anything at all,” he said.

The hotel was contacted for comment about the circumstances of guests being reimbursed.

After hearing Mr Betar missed out on his trip, Zoos SA offered him a free pass to use in future which he will use with his granddaughter who is soon to turn one.