A mum has described being trapped in her tower block flat with her three children as a fire raged on in another flat on her floor. The mum, who didn't wish to be named, lives on the sixteenth floor of Twinnell House, Easton, where a fire broke out last night.
A man died trying to escape the top floor fire and eight people are in hospital after a fire ripped through the East Bristol tower block earlier today (Sunday). Emergency services were called just after 2.15am (September 25) to a fire on the top floor of Twinnell House at Wills Drive, Easton.
A large number of emergency services remained at the scene of the fire this morning. Around 90 residents have been evacuated as a result of the fire.
Read more: Easton tower block fire updates: Man dead and eight in hospital after blaze
The mum said she was trapped inside her flat with her three children - including a five-month-old - for half an hour. The resident also claimed she didn’t hear a fire alarm going off and, instead, she got woken up by her baby crying and smelt smoke.
This claim of not hearing an alarm go off has been made by many residents at the scene. The resident said she could hear banging on the corridor so she went to open her front door but that, when she tried to do so, she was confronted by "lots of smoke".
“I called the emergency services, we could not even open the front door because of the amount of smoke,” she said. “It was terrifying. The fire brigade eventually came to get us, but there was lots of smoke by this point.”
The resident - who has lived in the tower block for three years - claimed that she is disabled, and that so are two of her children. She added: “We were in there [trapped in the flat] for 20 to 30 minutes. I was so scared for my kids.
"We had to go to hospital for smoke inhalation and they [her children] are with family now. I am hoping they will let me go in to get my things.”
Read more:
- Easton tower block fire updates: Man dead and eight in hospital after blaze
- Pictures and video from the scene of blaze
- Man who died in Bristol flat fire fell from top floor trying to escape the blaze
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