Rashel McCauley, 34, said she can't believe she and her partner Abidfatah Osman are still alive

Sign up here to get the CardiffOnline newsletter sent straight to your inbox

A Cardiff woman has described her terrifying narrow escape from a fire which broke out in her partner's flat and destroyed it completely. Police, fire, and ambulance crews raced to the scene on Sunday morning to rescue Rashel McCauley and her boyfriend Abdifatah Osman and put out the blaze, which started in the kitchen of the flat in Cowbridge Road East.

Rashel, 34, said the pair "can't believe" they survived the incident, which saw them trapped in their bedroom as smoke billowed from the kitchen and engulfed the entire room. It was so thick that they couldn't see anything and were left crawling around frantically for the TV, which they used to smash the bedroom window to flee.

It is thought the fire might have started after the battery of an electric bike exploded in the kitchen of the flat, which Abdifatah, 40, shares with three other people, but this hasn't been confirmed by the fire service. The service said that due to fire damage and concerns regarding the structural integrity of the property it was unable to conduct a full fire investigation. You can read all our Cardiff stories here.

Recalling the horrendous ordeal Rashel explained she was staying over at the time and that morning they were asleep in his bedroom, which is only a few steps above the kitchen. Soon after the two of them awoke they heard a "really loud banging noise".

The fire alarm then went off and Abdifatah thought it was because one of his flatmates was cooking. But Rashel insisted he investigated the noise and when he opened the bedroom door to check all they could see was smoke on their doorstep.

"The minute he opened the door I just started screaming because I knew how serious it was," she said. "We could no longer recognise anything. [The fire] must have been going for ages before we'd even heard anything and then the 'bang' is where it had burned through maybe through the cooker or a piece of glass which shattered.

"We just tried holding hands and running through and we just couldn't – we couldn't see anything. We couldn't breathe. It was just horrendous." She recalled Abdifatah was "already traumatised at the scene".

"He went down the stairs a little bit and tried walking through the smoke to see if we could get by. Then he came back but he didn't come in running. I was running round the room like I was on fire already.

"He walked in so slow and he pushed the door behind him. He just closed the door like he had given up. He just stood there staring at me. The look on his face – I just knew it was serious. His face already told me: 'We're dead'. I think he was just ready to stand there and burn to death."

But Abdifatah's resignation ignited within Rashel the strength to keep going. "I was screaming: 'No, no, come on, help, grab the telly,'" she said. She explained that her need to survive was further fuelled by a family tragedy that happened almost two decades ago. Her identical twin sister died an a car accident when they were just 15 which Rashel says "tore apart" her family.

"It brought everything back. I saw what it did to my mum and my family. My mum doesn't leave the house till this day. She's never gone out for meals, she doesn't take part in anything. She just can't face it. It's hard still to this day," she said. "The thought of me leaving and my mum having to go through all that again – that's all that was running through my head. It just gave me more fight. It was like a burst of energy. I was just not giving in. I was getting out of that window one way or another."

But by this time the couple could barely breathe due to the smoke, which was coming "rapidly" through a gap under the bedroom door. "It was really thick. When you took a breath it was like someone had poured bleach down your insides. I could feel the heat. I was just so panicky," she said.

"We couldn't breathe, we were choking, gasping our last breath. We couldn't see each other. We were just scrabbling – we were knocking everything down. We didn't even know what we're reaching for because we couldn't see."

With the little strength their bodies had left due to the lack of oxygen they swung the TV at the the double-glazed bedroom window five times until a crack finally appeared. "I just ran over to the window and just started yanking the glass out of the window frame with my bare hands," said Rashel.

She "didn't even recognise" herself as the two of them screamed for help from the window and started throwing pillows outside. She shouted for a van and bus to stop underneath the window so they could jump but onlookers warned her she would break her legs.

Even as she was reassured that emergency services were on their way Rashel said she "wasn't thinking straight" and considered dropping onto a ledge below her or hanging onto overheard wires. "The thought of burning to death – I just couldn't bear it," she said.

And when the fire brigade finally arrived and sent ladders to help them get down Rashel was so desperate to escape she had to resist the urge to jump. "I didn't care if I came out with broken legs, broken arms, or maybe not even any arms, but I just wanted to live. I'm only young – I don't want to die."

She said she only felt relief when she was on the ground and a gas mask was put on her. "It just felt like my insides were on fire – like I had a flame inside my belly, my throat, my chest. It was really bad," she said, adding that she still felt like she couldn't breathe and struggled to even drink water.

The pair were rushed to hospital. Abdifatah's bedroom has a lot of smoke damage and was left "trashed" as they raced blindly around it to find "anything" to help them escape. But the most damage has been done to the communal kitchen, which was burned beyond recognition.

Rashel and her boyfriend have since been given temporary accommodation in a hotel. "All we've done is look at each other and hug. I think we're both so surprised we're here," she said. But she added that "every little noise" goes right through her and she's struggled to be left alone since the horrifying incident.

A spokesman for South Wales Fire and Rescue said: "At approximately 10.17am on Sunday, May 22, we received reports of a domestic fire on Cowbridge Road East in Riverside, Cardiff. Several crews from fire and rescue stations in Cardiff attended the scene alongside emergency service colleagues.

"One person self-rescued from the property prior to our arrival and crews rescued a further two persons using a 13.5m ladder. Crews utilised specialist equipment, including hose reel jets, to extinguish the fire. A stop message was received at approximately 12.37pm."