A 32-year-old man from Pudsey told his mum he was having a ''fabulous time'' before he was unlawfully killed alongside his partner in a hotel blaze, an inquest has heard.
Simon Midgley and Richard Dyson were guests at the five star Cameron House Hotel, overlooking Loch Lomond in West Dunbartonshire, when it was gutted by fire in 2017.
A Scottish court earlier heard the blaze was ignited after a night porter removed hot ash from an open fire and placed it in a plastic bag inside a cupboard that contained kindling.
Mr Midgley, who ran his own PR company, and Mr Dyson, a 38-year-old TV producer, were later found incapacitated on the second floor. Both men died from smoke inhalation.
In January, the Scottish court fined the hotel £500,000 for breaches of fire safety rules and gave the porter a community payback order for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.
A coroner today concluded Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson were unlawfully killed and told the court he will urge government to address issues surrounding fire protocol in hotels.
Mr Midgley’s mum Jane Midgley gave emotional evidence at the inquest in Wakefield.
She said the last time she spoke to her son was over the phone on December 17, just hours before the fire broke out at Cameron House in the early hours of the next day.
Mrs Midgley, from Pudsey, said: “He phoned to say he was having a fabulous time and the hotel was fabulous.
“He said to me, ‘I’ll bring you here and you can enjoy all this’ and that ‘I have dreams for next year’.
“He said ‘I’m so looking forward to spending Christmas with you, don’t forget the pigs in blankets.
“He said ‘2018 is going to be our year, I’m going to have the best year ever, I promise you life is going to be from now on, I’m drowning in dreams’.
“Everything was normal, he was so excited.”
The court heard just hours after the call, at around 6.39am on December 18, 2017, an alarm sounded after staff noticed smoke coming from a cupboard.
As fire tore through the hotel, an evacuation of more than 200 guests was carried out before it was established Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson were missing over an hour later after 8am.
Firefighters recovered them from the second floor but the couple were found to have died as a result of smoke and fire gas inhalation.
Coroner Kevin McLoughlin told Wakefield Coroner’s Court he was concerned about the length of time between the evacuation, before 7am, and a roll call of guests, after 8am.
He said: “During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern.
"In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”
The court heard there was only a physical guest list, which was left in the hotel during the evacuation, and the roll call was not carried out until after the guest list had been recovered by firefighters after 8am.
The coroner said he will write to the Secretary of State for Business to highlight the issue.
He added: “It’s important that people are able to act quickly.
“I think that rather than having paper lists of guests, it cries out for a technological solution.
“My concern stems from any possible delay between the arrival of the fire service and establishing whether any guests are missing.
“The roll call was not carried out until an hour later [after the fire began].”
Mr McLoughlin told the court help could be offered “much quicker” if the protocol was different, although he added it’s not known whether this would have saved the men’s lives.
A police investigation found the blaze began after night porter Christopher O’Malley, 35, removed hot ash from an open fire and placed it in a plastic bag inside a cupboard that contained kindling.
The Scottish court previously heard O’Malley had been told not to push ash in plastic bags and that, in August 2017, a fire service had carried out an audit of the hotel which highlighted the risks of combustibles being stored within the cupboard.
However, no procedure had been put in place covering the emptying of hot ash from open fires, despite fire risk assessments carried out in 2016 and 2017, the court heard.
In addition to hearing from Mrs Midgley, the court also heard a victim impact statement read out by Mr Dyson’s dad Richard, who was tearful on the witness stand.
He said: “Richard was engaging, amusing company, he was hard-working and talented, he was a gentle and loving person with a wonderful, infectious laugh.
“He was loved by so many.
“Richard is, and always will be, our youngest son.”
Speaking briefly after the two-hour long hearing, Mrs Midgley said she would continue “fighting” for answers over the death of her son and Mr Dyson.
She wants a fatal accident enquiry to be carried out in order to establish more about the circumstances surrounding the tragic incident.
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