People have been left traumatised by the fire that broke out at a block of flats in Bristol at the weekend, a local woman has said.
The emergency services were called to Twinnell House, on Wills Drive in Easton, at around 2.15am on Sunday and evacuated 90 people from the block. Bristol City Council confirmed last night (Monday, September 26) that the blaze had been started accidentally by an electric bicycle in a flat on the top floor.
One man lost his life during the incident when, after climbing out a window to escape the blaze, he fell 16 floors to the ground below. His identity is yet to be confirmed. Several people were treated by paramedics at the scene and a few were taken to hospital to be checked over for smoke inhalation. As of last night, one person remains there with minor burns.
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Zahra Kosar, a trained social worker who is a coordinator at the Bristol Somali Resource Centre, went to Twinnell House on Sunday to provide emotional support to those affected by the fire. She said her mind immediately "went to Grenfell" when she got news of the blaze and she wanted to help in any way she could.
"It has been a traumatising experience for everyone. Some people feel frightened - especially those with children or frail and vulnerable adults. You can imagine being asleep and being woken up by the knocking of emergency services at your door," she said.
After they were evacuated, several residents reported the smoke alarms in Twinnell House were not working and that they only became aware of the emergency when firefighters knocked on their doors. However, Bristol City Council and Avon Fire and Rescue have since said all the fire doors and alarms had "responded as expected" on Sunday.
Ms Kosar said: "I think everyone who lives in a high-rise flat worries about fire safety. I think when anyone hears about a fire in a tower block, they are reminded of the terrible tragedy at Grenfell Tower.
"That is why I felt I had to go down there on Sunday, to do what I could to support people. I felt like I had a duty of care to the people there and tried to provide them with emotional support - talking to them, and making sure they had eaten something."
Many of the top floor residents had to stay elsewhere on Sunday night and Zahra explained that returning to Twinnell House had been a difficult experience for several people.
"At 8am yesterday morning (Monday) a gentleman called me and said his children were frightened to go back home and he hadn’t taken them to school that morning. I encouraged him to take them to school to maintain their routine and so they could see their friends and also because there is counselling and support available there.
"One of the ladies told me that it 'could have been worse' if the fire had started at the bottom of the tower block. She lives on the first or second floor. Although now they have gone back to their flat, she doesn’t know how they will fall asleep because they keep replaying what happened. She told me 'I never thought in my life I would see something like this'.
"They saw the people that came from the top floor, who had been affected by smoke inhalation, collapse in front of them as soon as they got outside. She keeps replaying that image in her head
"Another lady actually heard the man who fell shout ‘help, help’, and she cannot get those words out of her head. He is said to have been an Afghan man who lived on the top floor," Ms Kosar explained.
Bristol City Council also confirmed fire investigators had launched an immediate investigation into the cause of the fire and had found it to be accidental. The investigators also report that all of the fire measures worked well and the fire was contained in the flat where it began.
There is some smoke damage to the communal areas of the building, but no other flats were directly damaged by the fire. Fire doors and alarms both within the flat, and on the top floor, responded as expected given the circumstances.
"This meant that emergency services had the time needed to tackle the fire and get people out safely. The external cladding systems operated as expected and did not ignite or add to the fire. This helped to contain the fire inside the flat and reduce the risk to others," the council said.
It added that Twinnell House has personal fire alarms that "worked as expected". All evacuation procedures also worked as planned, the council said.
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