Briton tells of hostel inferno

A backpacker from Hampshire today relived in court the fire in an Australian outback hostel which killed 15 young travellers, including seven Britons.

Lisa Martin, 27, was the first witness to give evidence in the murder trial of fruit picker Robert Long, alleged to have deliberately started the blaze at the Palace hostel in Childers, north Queensland.

Ms Martin, from Basingstoke, was working as a fruit picker and travelling with her boyfriend, Julian Pillans, when she was woken by the sound of panic among other guests.

"I heard breaking glass - a lot of breaking glass. I thought it was people going crazy in the corridor outside," Ms Martin told the murder trial at the Supreme Court in Brisbane. "But it went on a bit too long. Then I heard the popping of timber and crackling and people's voices and there was this nasty smell of burning plastic." It was at this point that she understood she was listening to people trying to flee a rapidly growing fire, a realisation, she said, which was "a bit surreal".

After waking Mr Pillans, who is deaf and so would not have heard any of the commotion, they both got dressed. She was even calm enough to put in her contact lenses.

"Julian saw smoke coming in through the tin roof of our room. Smoke was coming into the bedroom. I opened the door. There was thick black smoke.

"I didn't see any flames but Julian closed the door, unfortunately not quickly enough."

The only possible escape route was a small window eight feet up. "I kicked out the mosquito mesh and I climbed out first and Julian followed," she said. Even after making this perilous leap, they were still not safe as they found themselves trapped in an alley blocked off by a locked gate. "I tried it and shook it. I think somebody else shook it, too. In any event, it didn't open."

As the couple turned back, they ran into more and more backpackers stumbling from the smoking hostel.

They then saw flames in the TV room, where Long - said in court to be a heavy drinker - is alleged to have started the fire.

Ms Martin, who will conclude her evidence tomorrow, is the first of eight British backpackers to give evidence in the trial, expected to last for four weeks.

Long, 38, is charged with murdering two of the 15 youngsters who died in the inferno which gutted the Palace hostel on 23 June, 2000. He also faces one charge of arson. He has pleaded not guilty. The case continues.