A woman who suffered horrific burns in a suspected arson attack says she has been forced to sleep on the streets after the fire rendered her home uninhabitable.

Laura Simmons, 45, who suffered serious burns to her face, arms and hands in the blaze at Leopards’ Plaza on Saturday, was last night admitted to hospital for treatment — sparing her a second consecutive evening sleeping outside.

Doctors say living in such conditions could have caused Mrs. Simmons’ burns to get infected — increasing the chance of permanent damage to her wounds.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Simmons has received a message of support from another victim, who sustained 45 percent burns in an accident when she was a young girl.

Sonia Gibbons said it took her several years to come to terms with her own injuries, and wanted to give Mrs. Simmons advice on how to cope.

Mrs. Simmons suffered her injuries as she battled her way through flames to escape from the second floor blaze. She fears she is scarred for life, while her hair was so badly burnt it has had to be cut off.

Some residents are continuing to stay at Leopards’ Plaza, in Pembroke, despite fire officers stating the building is uninhabitable. Even this option was not open to Mrs. Simmons because of the sensitivity of her burns.

Shortly after the incident, Mrs. Simmons stayed at a hotel — but said she could no longer afford such accommodation.

On Tuesday night, she slept on the floor outside Leopards’ Plaza, and she was again struggling to line up accommodation for last night.

However, she was taken into hospital in the evening when burns specialist Dr. Christopher Johnson — who saw pictures of her injuries in The Royal Gazette — got in touch to invite her for a check-up.

“I had got nowhere to stay and winded up sleeping outside last night. It was cold and I had no blanket,” she said yesterday.

“I went back to Leopards’ Plaza but I can’t stay in my room because there is too much smoke and I’m worried it will infect my burns.

“I’ve been talking to the people who live here, but they say all the emergency houses are full.

“The people who have someone to stay with have gone, but the rest have no choice other than to stay here.

“I tried sitting in my smoked-out room when I went up to try to salvage a couple of my things. But the smoke in the room was burning my face and I had to get out.”

Dr. Johnson told The Gazette <$>he wanted to assess Mrs. Simmons’ injuries and provide the appropriate treatment.

“She needs good, good care,” he said. “I was really shocked to hear she was on the streets.

“Bermuda is like a fungus and bacteria breeding ground. If her burns get infected, she would need more extensive repair work and a skin graft she wouldn’t have otherwise needed. “Unless you’ve got very good home support, you need to be treated in hospital. I saw the picture of her hand published in the paper and that needs to be cared for. There’s no reason for her to suffer.”

In the aftermath of the blaze, Housing Minister David Burch called for the community to come together to help the Leopards’ Plaza tenants.

Mr. Burch has warned that the Bermuda Housing Corporation’s (BHC) emergency housing facilities were at 100 percent capacity.

The Salvation Army yesterday said it has 55 beds for people who need them for a variety of reasons — but all are currently full.

Manager Ivor Minors said when there was no room people were usually advised to ask family or friends to provide them a temporary home.

“I suggest that they ask if they can be put on somebody’s couch until they can get back on their feet,” he said.

“I would call for people to come forward to help this lady if they have space available.”

Mrs. Gibbons, 52, from Hamilton Parish, got in touch with Mrs. Simmons after reading about her plight earlier this week.

She said her own life was saved thanks to the actions of a relative of Mrs. Simmons after her dress caught fire as a ten-year-old back in 1964. The stepfather of Mrs. Simmons’ future husband Brenton Simmons rushed to her aid and helped rip her burning clothes off.

“I was stirring a pot of soup and the hem of my dress caught fire,” she recalled.

“When I shook it, thinking it would go out, it spread. I ran round to my neighbours who helped me, but they didn’t know about stop, drop and roll — and they tried to pick the burning clothes off me, meaning they received first degree burns on their hands.

“From my chest down down to the top of my legs, and three quarters of my right arm, suffered second and third degree burns.”

Mrs. Gibbons had surgery on a number of occasions and only recovered her confidence after meeting her husband John Gibbons — and that Mrs. Simmons could take heart from her experiences.

“When I was younger I would never show my scars to anyone,” she said.

“Someone special came into my life and made me realise my burns contributed to the special person that I am. I could be talking to you, raising my arm and you could be staring directly at my burns — but I feel I’m a survivor.

“Laura survived that fire for a reason. She could have died. In this day in time they can do so much compared to when it happened to me. She needs to remember she is a survivor.”

Mrs. Simmons said: “It’s good to find someone I can talk to who has gone through the same kind of thing as me.”

At the peak of the fire, in the early hours of Saturday, a six-year-old girl had to be tied to bedsheets and lowered to safety from a bedroom window, while one 30-year-old man made three separate trips to the third floor to rescue fellow tenants.

Mrs. Simmons has claimed she attempted to tackle the blaze with a fire extinguisher, but that the device did not work.

Denny Richardson, president of the Leopards’ Club, which owns the block, said that if the fire extinguishers were faulty it was not the club’s responsibility. He argued that the tenants had moved into the property before the Leopards became landlord, and that the club had been hoping to move them out.

Mr. Richardson has suggested the fire started in a mattress which was dragged into the hallway. Fire officers yesterday said the cause of the blaze was still under investigation and a clearer picture of how it started would be available tomorrow.