A dad ran inside a burning tower block to get his family out. Saed Abdi lives on a one-bedroom flat on the fourteenth floor of Twinnell House, Easton, with his wife and four children.
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. Emergency services were called just after 2.15am today (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
Saed Abdi has has lived at the tower block for six years and said he was working at the time the fire broke out, but that someone rang him to tell him. The dad - whose children are aged between one and six - immediately tried contacting his wife, who was at home with the kids, but he was not able to get through to her.
Mr Abdi said it was nearly 3am by the time he got back to Twinnell House, and claimed there were no fire alarms going off. "When I got here, they were still inside the flat," he said. "I just had to go back inside, no one had knocked on their door by this point.
"There was a lot of fire at the time, but I didn't even think about it and went inside - all I could think about was my children.
"The further up you went, the more I could smell the smoke. I just got them as fast as I could - some of the kids were naked and we just ran down. It was very chaotic.
"A lot of people were not aware of the fire by this point and there were lots coming out."
Mr Abdi said they knocked on their neighbours' doors to wake them up. The dad said the whole family have spent the night in their car, adding they don't know when they will be allowed back in.
"I do not want to go back up there," he added. "Imagine if the fire had broken out in the middle, we would have been stuck - it is lucky it happened on a top floor.
"A lot more people could have died, it is a miracle that only one person died - it could have been a lot worse if you think about it."
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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