| Hannah Crowther was asleep in her rented Roseangle home yesterday morning when she awoke to loud crackling noises from the inferno that had broken out in the living room.
As the property filled with smoke, the 23-year-old rushed to wake friend Sam Relph — who was also staying in the flat — and the pair ran to safety outside the building.
Hannah — an artist, who recently graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design — could only watch in horror from the ground as she saw flames consume the fourth floor property and all her worldly possessions.
“We were sleeping when I woke up to smoke,” she said. “It took me a minute to realise what was happening but then I heard the noise of the crackling of the fire.
“My flatmate was not there as she is on holiday, but my friend Sam had been staying in the flat. I went to wake him and we got outside as fast as we could.
“It was only when we looked up and saw the flames licking out of the windows that we saw quite how bad it was.”
Sam (26) suffered minor burns to his arms and was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene, but did not require further hospital treatment.
Hannah, who also works in the bar and restaurant at Dundee Rep theatre, escaped unhurt.
“We are both OK but we were a bit shaken by it,” she said. “We were told we were lucky because the living room door was closed, which contained the fire for a while. It was really surreal, it has not quite sunk in but at least no one was hurt.”
Hannah is currently staying in temporary accommodation in the city. “We went back to try and salvage what we could from the mess,” she said.
“I managed to get some things from my bedroom but there was nothing left in the living room at all.
“The flat was unrecognisable. We feel very lucky.”
The other residents who were forced to evacuate the tenement block following the 7am blaze were unhurt in the incident.
Roy Dunsire, station manager of Blackness Road and Kingsway fire stations, said the tenants were extremely lucky to have escaped with their lives.
“The property didn’t have a working smoke alarm,” he said. “The door to the living room was closed, which contained the blaze. It could have been totally different set of circumstances if it had been left open – we could have been dealing with fatalities.”
Mr Dunsire went on, “Because of the actual damage to the living room, it’s very difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the fire.
“The initial investigation has suggested it would appear to be some kind of electrical fault.” |
