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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Cathy Owen & Laura Clements

'We had a minute to put our clothes on' Residents describe escaping Cardiff city centre fire

A father and his daughter fled to the roof of an apartment block after a major fire broke out in Cardiff city centre. Parts of the capital were blocked off after the blaze in the apartments above Caroline Street at lunchtime on Friday.

Dad Ahmed and his three-year-old daughter Dima, waited on the roof for more than 30 minutes before being rescued by fire crews. You can follow live updates on the blaze here.

He said: “Fire alarms and the smoke made us realise there was a fire. We waited 30 minutes on the roof and then managed to get out the stairs when the fire crews came."

READ MORE: Met Office weekend weather forecast for Wales as parts of the country set to be warmer than Barcelona

There are 12 flats in the block of apartments and the fire broke out just after 12.30pm. Another resident described how fast they had to get out of the building once the alarm was raised.

Ahmed and his daughter Dima (Laura Clements)

He said: "The flats were filled with smoke and the alarms were ringing. We had just a minute to put our clothes on.

"I didn’t even take my passport or documents. The stairway was filled with smoke."

Rafiu Anifowose said: "I was upstairs, the smoke was too much, so I waited on the balcony. I came down the stairs after the smoke cleared."

Smoke seen coming from the building (Laura Clements)
Fire crews dealing with the fire (Laura Clements)

More than seven fire crews were called to the city centre blaze and plumes of black smoke were seen billowing above.

Residents are waiting at the scene to hear what will happen next. They said the water and electricity was cut off and it will take some time for the smoke to leave the building.

It is the second major fire in south Wales in less than 24 hours. On Thursday evening fire crews were called to tackle a massive blaze at former workingmens' club in Tylorstown. Read more about that here.

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