AN Evesham woman rescued from a hostel fire in Australia in which 15 people died has spoken of her relief now the trial of the arsonist is over.

Amy Baker, aged 22, returned to Evesham after giving evidence at the trial of Robert Long, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for starting the blaze in a backpackers' hostel in June 2000.

Amy, whose parents, Chris and Dave, live in Collinsfield, Evesham, said she thought the judge's recommendation that he spend at least 20 years in prison was not long enough, but added: "I'm glad he was found guilty."

She had to spend several days waiting to be called to give evidence and said: "Everyone was really nervous, so I was glad when it was over and done with."

She added: "You don't realise until it is over how much it was hanging over you, but I don't have to think about it now."

While in Australia she returned to the scene of the fire at Childers, north of Brisbane, where residents have plans for a memorial to those who died in the fire. "It is really nice," she said. "They are going to have an art gallery where the old hostel was."

Almost two years after the event, the fire is still fresh in her memory.

Recalling what happened that night, she said she had been in Australia for eight months with a friend, Emma Waldek, travelling around the country and working whenever they ran out of funds.

In Childers, three and a half hours north of Brisbane they had been staying at the hostel for a month and working alongside other backpackers as avocado pickers.

On the night of the blaze she had been out for a meal before going to bed at about 10.30pm. She said: "I went to the toilet, so I came out of my room and then I saw Robert Long sitting looking down from the second floor.

"He said something to me, but I didn't hear him properly and when I came back he wasn't there."

She added: "We went to sleep and then my friend woke me up shouting that there was smoke.

"One girl went to open the bedroom door, but the handle was too hot."

The five girls in the room then clambered out through the window and on to the verandah, before climbing across the roofs of neighbouring shops to escape.

"I remember looking back and seeing there was lots of black smoke pouring out of our rooms and other ones."

It wasn't until about 8am the next morning that they learned of the fatalities. "Everyone was so shocked it was such a big number," said Amy, who lost all her belongings in the fire.

The residents of Childers leapt to their aid with shopkeepers giving clothes to the hostel residents who had lost everything, and supporting them in every way possible.

Surprisingly, Amy didn't come straight home afterwards. "I had four months left," she said, "and I didn't want that to be my last memory of Australia.

"All the people in Childers had been so helpful and generous that it didn't spoil Australia for me."

She knew well two of those who died and said: "When I was travelling round I was thinking that they should have been doing this and seeing Ayers Rock and things."

The experience has not stopped her travelling either. Amy, a trained nanny, said she was staying in Evesham briefly before going to Miami in America to work as a nanny for a month.

She also plans to return again to Childers in October for the opening of the art gallery.