A WOMAN who broke her back jumping from a window to escape an inferno which ripped through an Indian restaurant and her flat might have to spend months in hospital.

Charlene Sutton, 28, and her boyfriend Kevin Parry, 41, only moved into their first floor flat above the Divalution salon on Monk Street, Abergavenny, a few weeks before the blaze on January 3, which also destroyed the Sundarbon Bengal Cuisine restaurant.

She told the Argus: “We were asleep and I work up to the smell of smoke and I could hear the blaze.

“I woke my boyfriend up and the flat was full of smoke so we rang the fire brigade. I said: ‘Kevin, we can’t go through the doors because that’s where the fire’s coming from.’

“We couldn’t breathe and we jumped from the windows. My back will be weak for the rest of my life. I might need to wear a brace for years until I feel comfortable.”

The cause of the blaze is still unknown because fire investigators say it is unsafe to go inside the buildings, but Gwent Police confirmed it is not thought to be suspicious. It took firefighters two-and-a-half hours to bring it under control.

Doctors have opted to delay any operation on Ms Sutton’s back until blood clots in her lungs have dissolved, she said.

Ms Sutton was due to be transferred from Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport last week for an operation but began coughing up blood only a few hours before. The operation was postponed and she has been told she will have to rest in bed indefinitely until the clots have disappeared.

Ms Sutton added: “I sat in a chair and I got all giddy and [nurses] had me back in bed. I can’t stand on my feet.”

She said the couple are devastated to have lost all their possessions in the flat which they had “built together from scratch” after living in temporary accommodation. Mr McCarthy is currently staying with Ms Sutton’s father until other temporary housing is found.

She thanked “brilliant” efforts from Abergavenny people who have donated items through the Help Victims of the Monk Street Fire Facebook page, which has been led by her friend Natalie Chiplin and another woman whom she has not yet met, Nikki Cleaton.

The owner of the building which occupies Divalution and the flats upstairs, Jan Compérat, previously told the Argus before that it will be months until her property is habitable again. Extensive water damage was caused by firefighters as they sought to keep the damage confined to the flat and the restaurant.