Dubai hotel fire: Mum carried down 15 flights of stairs by son

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-35209584

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A man has been explaining how he had to carry his mother down 15 flights of stairs during the hotel fire in Dubai.

Angus Villar, 27, from Saffron Walden in Essex, was at the Address Downtown Hotel on New Year's Eve.

His mother, who did not wish to be named, uses a wheelchair.

Mr Villar said: "It was lucky for us we were only on the 15th floor, not the 60th, because I might have been struggling by the end of that."

The tower was successfully evacuated with 16 people hurt, mainly with minor injuries, according to the Dubai authorities.

'Not too heavy'

Mr Villar was visiting his parents in Dubai, where his father works as a surgeon.

He said there was no fire alarm, but they realised there were flames at about 21:00 local time.

"There was confusion and no-one knew what had happened, but I could see the balcony of the neighbouring room was on fire," he said.

"I wheeled my mother out to the exit, but there didn't seem to be a way to get wheelchairs down and I wasn't going to wait to find out, so I put her on my back and she's not too heavy.

"It's what anyone would do, essentially.

"When I got out and saw it with my own eyes, I saw how serious it was."

Mr Villar said he was put up in another hotel and is due to fly home next week.