A journalist who moved to start a new life in Dubai in September made a dramatic escape from a 14th floor Dubai apartment after a fire broke out.

Sarah Swain left her role as a reporter at the Glasgow Evening Times two months ago to work for Switch, a publishing company in Dubai which produces magazines for hotels and banks – although she has since moved on from the position.

But when a fire broke out which gutted the roof and upper floors of the 34-floor Tamweel Towers apartment block, Sarah, pictured left with the damaged building, was among 600 people who had to be evacuated.

Sarah was staying with a friend from Sheffield University at her 14th floor apartment but they quickly had to leave when the blaze started around 2am local time on Sunday, sending smoke drifting over the Jumeirah Lakes Towers shopping and apartment development.  Three cats were also inside their apartment and later had to be rescued but were not injured.

Sarah, who is from Humberston near Cleethorpes, told the Grimsby Telegraph: “We heard the alarm going off and we jumped out of bed and started making our way down the staircase. We thought it was a false alarm. After a few floors we could smell smoke and we just thought ‘oh my God!’ and started running.

“It was awful, there seemed to be no other people coming down until we got to the bottom and saw a family with a baby.

“When we were climbing down the staircase, going round and round, I couldn’t help but think of the World Trade Center. Because the building is so tall it seemed to take us ages to get out.

“By the time we had made our way out, one side of the tower roof was on fire. We couldn’t believe it, we were in shock, we both feel very lucky.”

She said burning cladding from the apartment building had rained down on people and cars below.

Added Sarah: “It was like something out of a nightmare, we couldn’t believe it was happening.

“The fire was quickly spreading all over because of the cladding. It was a crazy situation and worrying how fast the fire spread.”

No one was injured in the fire and Sarah was put up in a hotel for the night, with her now staying with another friend.

She has been able to go back into the apartment to collect her possessions and said there had been a lot of help from the community for those affected by the fire.

Sarah worked at the Glasgow Evening Times for more than five years, the highlight of which was a video interview with entertainer John Barrowman, and she previously worked for a number of other papers in Scotland.