A woman yesterday told of the recurring nightmares suffered since she woke to discover her home engulfed in flames.

Colleen Lewis considers herself lucky to have survived the fire devastated the apartment complex she lived in at Mount Hill Mews in Pembroke.

Four families were left homeless after the blaze ripped through Cedar Vale Apartments just before 5 a.m. on Saturday, February 20.

One firefighter described it as one of the largest residential fires in more than a decade.

Ms Lewis told The Royal Gazette she is sure she would have died if she had slept just five minutes longer.

When she woke around 4.30 a.m. her room was filled with "thick blinding smoke".

"I went to turn on the lights but when I flicked the switch nothing happened," she recalled. "That is when I really knew that something was wrong.

"It was all very surreal. Before I realised what was actually happening I just sort of thought to myself, 'why is my room filled with smoke'?"

Once reality set in, Ms Lewis ran to wake a friend also staying in the apartment. She left with the clothes on her back and one slipper. "We went running outside," she said. "The glass door to the apartment had already exploded from the heat and when we got out we could see the orange glow of the fire reflected in the windows of a nearby house.

"At this point I still felt like I was in a dream and the glowing flame looked like someone barbecuing in the distance.

"I thought 'why are those people barbecuing at four thirty in the morning?'."

No one was hurt in the blaze. Ms Lewis, who was house sitting at the time, feels worse for the apartment's owner.

She only lost her clothes and basic necessities. Owner Wendy Pitt lost priceless photographs, clothing, a large vinyl record collection and all of her furniture.

Still, she realises how fortunate she was.

"If we had taken longer to get out of there I am sure that, with that amount of smoke, we would have never woken up," she said. "We were also lucky that the roof didn't collapse sooner."

The building was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at 5 a.m.

Three fire trucks, three support vehicles and 16 personnel fought the blaze for two hours using over 10,000 gallons of water before the flames were finally snuffed out.

Because of the fire's massive size, water had to be procured from a neighbour's tank to supplement the firefighters' supply.

Ms Lewis and her friend watched as the ceilings, weakened from the fire, collapsed burying everything inside with smouldering rubble. She recalls seeing a "giant ball of fire".

"It has been hard," she said. "I still have nightmares nearly every night about it. And the dreams are always different sometimes I am in the fire and others I am outside watching.

"I really don't like going back up there. With the nightmares and everything else, it feels very eerie. But I have managed to salvage everything that I possibly can and I think it is time to move on."

Ms Lewis works in the Matchbox, a tiny store in the Washington Mall.

She says she got through the experience with support from friends, family and members of the public.

Several organisations including the Bermuda International Pool League and The Blue Waters Anglers Club have held benefit dinners to help raise money on her behalf.

With their help she was able to move into a new apartment in Point Shares, Pembroke within two-and-a-half weeks of the fire.

And a local church has donated a new wardrobe to Ms Lewis.

"The church gave me a lot of really nice stuff," she said. "I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart. There are too many to list but I am sincerely thankful to all who helped.

"It was a terrible experience but I walked out of there with my life and I am very grateful for that.