Deadly Dubai tower blaze

A British pilates teacher has said she didn't know if she was going to make it out alive as she fled down 57 flights of stairs while her Dubai tower block home burned in the night.

Hayley Brown, 26, from Cumbernauld in Scotland, said she had a 'terrifying' and 'horrendous' experience during the blaze, spending 20 desperate minutes fleeing to safety.

But once the former Scottish Rockettes dance troupe member had got to the bottom of the 1,100ft, 86-storey Torch Tower, she had to dodge burning debris that was falling from the sky and smashing into cars below.

She told the Daily Record: 'I feel lucky to be alive. It was 20 minutes to get downstairs and I honestly didn't know if I would make it out on time - it was horrendous.' 

The same building was devastated by fire in 2015 and its flammable cladding, which was similar to that used in Grenfell Tower, was blamed for fuelling the flames. 

Hayley, who has lived in the United Arab Emirates for a year and eight months, believes the fire actually started just three floors above her own flat on the 57th floor.

She said she 'didn't think anything' of the fire alarm when it first went off at 1am because its sounding is a common occurrence following a blaze in the same building in 2015. 

But when it became obvious it was not a drill, Hayley promptly left her flat - joined by a host of residents who were 'in a panic'. 

She added: 'One woman in particular looked like she was going to pass out.' 

When she reached the bottom of the block - one of the tallest residential buildings in the world - she witnessed two cars set alight by falling material. 

Rockettes dancer Hayley Brown (pictured left and right) said it was a 'terrifying' and 'horendous' experience to escape flames

But once safely on the ground, she started to think about the belongings she had left behind in her flight.

She said: 'I left everything behind. I have a pair of shorts and T-shirt on and flip flops - and that is it. No car keys, no money, no clothes.' She added: 'By the looks of it it's all ruined but we don't know yet.'     

Other residents of Dubai's Torch Tower were texted, phoned and emailed when the blaze broke out this morning, giving them time to pack and evacuate in just 10 minutes – unlike victims of London's Grenfell disaster who were told to stay put.

Footage shows people in the 1,100ft, 86-storey skyscraper calmly wheeling their suitcases along a corridor and a member of staff directing them to the exit as a fire ravaged the tower's exterior. 

Unlike the inferno in West London in June, in which at least 80 died, residents of the Torch were able to escape unharmed with only a few people treated for smoke inhalation.

Residents of the Torch were woken at about 1 am by internal fire alarms and building management who sent workers knocking on doors to ensure people got out safely. Witnesses said people walked in an 'orderly fashion' down fire escape stairs.

In contrast, Grenfell residents reported not hearing an alarm. Firefighter also told people to remain in their flats, believing that they could contain the fire.    

Samia Badani, chairman of the residents association at Bramley House, next to Grenfell Tower, said of the Dubai fire: 'They clearly took their duty to protect the safety of residents seriously and were organised.'

She told MailOnline that the fire evacuation plan at Grenfell was, by comparison, 'inadequate'.

She added: 'At Grenfell they didn't think the building was unsafe so they didn't make proper plans. The Local Authority was nowhere and it was left to the fire service and police to try to save people. [At Grenfell] firefighters had to ask residents for details about the building.'

She said she believed Grenfell residents were let down because of their social status and because they were poor and that local authorities were only interested in making the building look nice from the outside rather than being safe for those living inside.

In Dubai last night, fire 'spread rapidly' through one of the world's tallest residential towers sparking panic among terrified residents - including dozens of Britons - after a day when temperatures in the city climbed to 45C (113F).

Alarming footage showed flames climbing up the outside of the skyscraper, a building popular with expats in the United Arab Emirates tourism hotspot.

Burning debris could be seen crashing down to the ground below as tearful residents fled and firefighters desperately tackled the blaze.

Residents this morning described how they woke to screaming and fire alarms after a blaze broke out on the 63rd floor. It is understood to have spread across 40-storeys of the 676-flat building, where apartments start at £381,000. The cause of the fire is not yet known. 

Parts of the building were still undergoing restoration work following the 2015 blaze when the second fire broke out overnight. In both incidents, it appears fire alarms alerted residents and building staff knocked on doors to ensure a quick evacuation.

Yorkshire-born resident Lucy, 27, said she was woken by fire alarms going off just before 1am and had to descend 40 floors from her apartment to safety.

She said although no sprinklers had started before she left the building, the tower's security team had triggered a system which gave an automated call, email and text to all residents within minutes of the fire starting. 

She said: 'I woke up straight away. It was not until I got outside and saw people pouring out that I realised how serious it was. I don't know how long it took me to come down, I was in a daze. My friend who lives on the 22nd floor called when I reached the 20th floor and said: 'Get out now' and it only sank in then that this was a real emergency.

'When I got outside, I saw fire all down one side of the building. It had obviously started on a high floor but burning debris was falling onto the ground and setting fire to cars below. My flat is on the other side of the building so I am hoping it will be okay.

'I was in pyjamas and slippers and had just grabbed my phone as I was leaving. There was a lady in front of my carrying a baby. It was hard enough going down 40 floors as it was without having to carry a child.'

She said that the Torch 'apparently has a similar type of cladding to Grenfell Tower but the response was very different.

'The quality of buildings here in Dubai worries me but I could not fault the way they dealt with it. They knew exactly what to do.

'I drove past Grenfell recently and it is just a black shell.

'Here they had an automated system and all the security staff were not getting out themselves, they were helping others out.

'I don't know whether no one died simply because they managed to get this fire under control [or whether that's the reason].'

Lucy added she was staying with a friend until residents are allowed back into the building, which could be as early as tomorrow.

Kingfield Owner Association Management Services, which manages the maintenance of Torch tower, bussed out hundreds of residents in the early hours to different hotels across the city, where their overnight stays will be covered by insurance.

Evacuated residents are staying in different hotels across Dubai or with friends.

The neighbouring Princess Tower opened its 97th floor lounge to any stranded residents last night, who camped on makeshift beds made of plastic-covered mattresses and sheets on the floor.

Moustafa Touson, 36, an Egyptian hotel services manager living in Torch, slept on a sofa in the lounge and was huddled under a blanket all day after being left stranded with no money or credit cards.

All his possessions were abandoned in his 30th floor flat and car parked on the second floor, neither of which he has been able to access.

He said: 'I heard the alarm go off at about midnight. I tried to go back to sleep as I did not realise it was an emergency but when I looked out of the window, I saw pieces of burning debris falling from upper floors.

'The lifts were out of action so I took the stairs and went to the assembly point outside, where there were a lot of people gathered.

'It wasn't too hard going down 30 floors but there were women there in high heels who were struggling. I was okay but I did wonder how an old person would be able to make it down from a top floor.