I was the first member of the press at the scene during the huge fire last week at the One Station Hill building.

Just before 12 pm I was out of the office running an errand when I saw a man and woman pointing at the sky.

I instinctively turned to look at where they were gesturing and saw huge billows of black smoke filling the sky.

I stood for a moment in disbelief. Upon reflection, because last Thursday was so bright and clear, the smoke looked even more bizarre against the cloudless blue sky.

Forgetting what I had previously been meaning to do, I headed towards where the smoke was coming from.

I rushed down Broad Street and passed more individuals who had slowly started to notice that the sky was turning black.

It was only when I turned down Smelly Alley that the gravity of what was happening really dawned on me.

I could see the top of the Station Hill building completely alight with enormous clouds of smoke gushing from the flames.

Passers-by stopped with me to stare at the burning tower. The only way I can describe it is that it looked fake, like something out of an action film.

I raced down Smelly Alley and out towards the front of the building. There was already a huge crowd gathered there watching the horror unfold.

From every direction, I could hear the sounds of police, ambulance, and fire engine sirens and the gasps of “I hope no one’s in there” along with other questions about people’s safety.

I spent the rest of the day speaking to people at the scene, hearing from them how they had dealt with evacuations from their places of work.

Many spoke to me at great lengths about how they had witnessed the huge fire, and numerous people had watched the Twitter video that was currently circulating of the crane driver saving a man.

I was also told by a friendly policewoman about the details of the fire, that she had been the first on the scene, that she had gone into the building herself, and that two people were in hospital.

Overall, the day was very eventful. As a trainee, I was excited to experience my first major breaking news story, but also deeply worried about those who found themselves trapped by the fire.