An Erith woman is living a "blessed life" after she survived a raging inferno that swept through her apartment building.

Pauline Jackson, 37, was asleep on her sette as a huge fire took hold of the new-build block of flats in James Watt Way on Monday (August 8).

News Shopper:
72 firefighters were on-hand to battle the new-build blaze

It has been reported that more than 25 people inside the building made their own way out of the flats even though the fire alarms in the emergency stairways didn’t sound, a source has told News Shopper.

A resident who wished to remain anonymous claims that a woman is reported to have run down four floors of the block smashing the glass of the alarms in each stairwell but to no avail.

After one hour of the flames taking hold Ms Jackson awoke to the sound of her mobile phone ringing.

“I have never been so afraid before and I have lived on the streets and everything, Ms Jackson said, “I was so shaken up.”

“It was the first time I had to myself and it went like this.

“I just feel blessed.”

Friends and mobile phone life saviours David Hunt, 52 and his wife Dawn, of Maynards Close, added: “Something was on her side that day.

“I can’t believe how lucky my friend is.

““She ran out to her balcony and everyone was shouting ‘get out, get out,’

“She just got her tobacco and ran.”

72 firefighters were on-hand from 1.35pm beating back the blaze that raged on into the evening.

Miraculously no one was seriously hurt in the fire as ten fire engines were sent to tackle the flames coming from a flat on the fifth floor.

News Shopper:
David Hunt and Dawn Hunt called Pauline Jackson who was asleep for about an hour as the fire raged on

As fire crews battled the inferno a lot of residents went into the Morrisons opposite the block of flats where the staff have been praised for their charity.

Fire officers have since confirmed that solar panels on the roof of the apartment complex had probably played a role in spreading the blaze.

The flames ripped through a communal corridor and up through a roof void wrecking at least two flats.

Smoke was seen gushing from the rafters as the fire raged on into the early evening.

The cause of the fire has been confirmed by the fire brigade as an electrical fault which was started accidentally.

In response to residents’ claims that the fire alarms didn’t sound, a spokesman for the housing association Moat, which owns the building, said:

“The fire system at James Watt Way performed as planned and triggered a fast response from the fire brigade, allowing all residents to be evacuated safely.

“The system is highly advanced and designed around the ‘stay put’ principle.

“There are no auditory alarms in communal areas apart from the emergency stairways in order to encourage people to remain in their home until the fire brigade arrives.

“Each individual property then acts as a fire resistant unit.

“This is the preferred strategy for most properties of this type and is therefore adopted wherever possible in line with national fire safety guidance.

“This could certainly help to explain why some residents did not hear an alarm, but the system performed its main function which is to trigger a response from the fire brigade.”