World champion blind waterskier Janet Gray has described the terrifying moments when she cheated death as a fire raged through an Italian hotel while she was sleeping.

The brave Northern Ireland woman was in Recetto for the European Disabled Waterski Championships this week when she was caught up in the blaze drama, on her birthday.

Janet was guided to safety down four flights of smoke-filled stairs by her 65-year-old mother and had to spend two days in her pyjamas after losing her belongings when the hotel was destroyed.

But, typically, the Co Down waterskier rebounded from adversity to compete yesterday in the European competition.

The trauma took place earlier this week when a supermarket next to the Bussola Hotel, where Janet and her mother Maureen Snowdon (65) were staying, caught fire.

Although residents were assured the flames had been extinguished, they later spread to the hotel. The local women were fast asleep when a warning was issued that the hotel had become an inferno.

They were awakened when firemen hammered on their door and screamed at them to get out.

Speaking from the Italian resort, the Belfast Telegraph Sports Award winner said: “It was terrifying. The smell of smoke was overpowering. It was thick and rancid, mum led me out.

“We were on the fourth floor and I have to say the firemen were magnificent in evacuating the place. We’re thanking our lucky stars that we came through it.

“We were led down four flights of stairs and were coughing our lungs out when we reached the street. I had the presence of mind to grab our passports, some money and coats, but we had to spend the next couple of days dressed in coats and our pyjamas as the shops were closed.

“We spent two nights in the foyer of a second hotel and then we were transferred to a third one. We didn’t get much sleep.”

She added: “I was one of the first of the disabled skiers there. It’s a blessing it didn’t happen later in the week, as the Bussola was the official hotel for the disabled water skiers. It would have been packed with disabled skiers by then, many of them in wheelchairs, and the firemen couldn’t possibly have evacuated them all.

“Only three of us arrived early — Englishman Stephen Armstrong who is blind, Irishman Eamon Prunty, who is in a wheelchair, and myself. It was a mercy we weren’t injured. The hotel was destroyed in the fire, but the competition organisers worked flat out and everyone was resettled in another hotel by the time the competition got under way.

“We’d managed to buy new clothes by then, and luckily, I had met an Italian skiing friend when we arrived at the airport and he took all my sports equipment out to the lake venue and I was able to practice and compete.”

But misfortune struck again. During a practice run, Janet's wrist became snagged in a tow rope, she sprained it badly and was advised to withdraw.

“But there was no way I was going to pull out after all that drama and I went ahead with it strapped up,” she said. “I didn’t win any medals, but as ever, the experience was excellent and will stand me in good stead for next year’s world championships.

“It’s been a horrific week, but I’m used to that sort of thing. I’ll be delighted to get home.”

Janet went blind at 21 through a hereditary condition. But she astounded the sports world, and her friends and family, when she took up waterskiing.

She took the world titles in 1999, 2001 and 2003. She was awarded the MBE in 2001.