Fire damages historic hotel in Ethiopia

(Jan 12, 2015, (The Guardian))--Fire has badly damaged a hotel in Ethiopia’s capital made famous as the setting for Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 satirical novel Scoop. A fierce blaze swept through the Itegue Taitu hotel in Addis Ababa late on Saturday. “Within a few minutes the whole place was alight and smoke was coming out the eaves,” said Clem Clemson, a British tourist.

The fire-hit Itegue Taitu hotel in Addis Ababa. Photograph: Zacharias Abubeker/AFP/Getty Images

Onlookers gather outside the Taitu Hotel following a fire at the historical landmark built in 1907, in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. A fire department official says the fire has damaged the hotel which featured the city's famous jazz club "Jazz Amba", now destroyed, which was frequented by foreigners and locals alike. (AP Photo/Elias Asmare)

Firemen walk through wreckage at the Taitu Hotel following a fire at the historical landmark built in 1907, in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. A fire department official says the fire has damaged the hotel which featured the city's famous jazz club "Jazz Amba", now destroyed, which was frequented by foreigners and locals alike. (AP Photo/Elias Asmare)

The Itegue Taitu Hotel in Addis Ababa, was built in the early 1900s and became famous as the setting for British author Evelyn Waugh's 1938 satirical novel "Scoop" ©Zacharias Abubeker (AFP)

A man works amongst the wreckage after a fire ripped through the Itegue Taitu Hotel in Addis Ababa, on January 12, 2015 ©Zacharias Abubeker (AFP)

“It took about 10 minutes for the fire brigade to turn up, but it was really gone by that time. It’s a real shame because it had lots of character.”

Scoop told the story of hapless foreign correspondent William Boot, mistakenly sent to cover the invasion of the country. The story was based partly on Waugh’s experiences reporting for the Daily Mail on Italian invasion of Abyssinia – now Ethiopia – in 1935.

The late WF Deedes, who also reported on the invasion and stayed at the hotel, was widely believed to have been a partial inspiration for Boot. Writing in the Daily Telegraph after a return visit to the hotel in 2003, Deedes described the Taitu as where “the reporters drank, plotted, quarrelled and borrowed each other’s toothbrushes”, a site “on which Evelyn Waugh drew some of his comic scenes in Scoop” Read more from The Guardian ».

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