A fire at a hotel in Southend forced guests to flee a charity ball last night.

The Park Inn Palace in Church Road, Southend was evacuated after a fire broke out inside a casino in the same building.

The hotel was hosting a charity ball in support of Southend Carnival where half way through its dinner service at around 8pm, the fire started.

The basement of the building was engulfed in smoke.

Fire services arrived at the hotel at around 8.20pm.

Gemma Cartwright, vice chair of Southend Carnival said that the fire took place in the casino which forced the alarm for the hotel to be evacuated.

She said: "The fire was in the casino based in the same building as the hotel, although it is part of the building, it is a different area.

"The fire was in a separate place but the alarm systems are connected to the hotel so we had to evacuate the building."

Hundreds of guests and residents were stood outside of the hotel as two fire engines waded in to take on the blaze.

Mrs Cartwright added: "We were told to leave the building and within three minutes, the emergency services were there.

"We had 120 guests at the event and the hotel was full.

"We were all evacuated and got out very quickly.

"For something that is quite unusual, the hotel were very good and the staff were all there to help.

"From our point of view, we want to thank the staff and the fire services, we could not fault them.

"The managers and staff were constantly telling us everything that was going on."

The charity event continued an hour later after staff and the ball's organisers bought fish, chips and pizza for the guests as they waited outside the Park Inn Palace.

At the end of the evening, even with the interim for the fire, £3,000 was raised for charity organisations across Southend.

Mrs Cartwright said that although the fire forced proceedings to change a little, it was a very interesting event.

She said: "We all have young children so it made for the most exciting evening."

An Essex County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “Firefighters responded to a fire at a hotel in Church Road, Southend at 8.20pm last night.

“On arrival crews reported a fire in the hotel's kitchen, which is situated in the basement of the premises, had filled the basement with smoke.

“Firefighters extinguished the fire by 8.36pm, before ventilating the building using Positive Pressure Ventilation (PPV) fans.

“The cause of the fire has been recorded as accidental.”