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A grieving young man wept today as he relived the night his hero girlfriend died trying to save him from their blazing apartment.

Oscar Silva said: “She did what she did for me and that’s the worst thing to live with – the knowledge someone has given their life for you.

"She was so young and had so much to give.”

Architect Oscar was trapped on the fifth floor when 23-year-old Sophie Rosser returned home from a party.

Seeing flames licking the block and knowing Oscar was inside she phoned to warn him.

He hadn’t thought to tell her to stay put – he never dreamt she would come searching for him.

But that’s exactly what she did. And she died after being overcome by smoke as she fought her way up the stairs.

Firefighters carried her outside and Oscar had a bird’s-eye view of her limp figure spread face up on the pavement below, surrounded by paramedics.

Tears falling freely, he said: “I slumped to the floor and watched as they lay her on the ground and spent ten minutes trying to save her.

“All I could do was shout ‘That’s my Sophie’.

“Now I carry her legacy. She would want me to live life to the full as she did.

"She always woke with a smile. And that’s what I a try to do. I want her sacrifice to be worthwhile.”

(Image: Tim Anderson)

Next week marks two years since Sophie’s death. But for Oscar, speaking for the first time about his loss, it seems like yesterday.

When I asked if he needed a break he quietly declined. “It helps to talk about her,” he said.

The 30-year-old was working in a bar in London when he met Sophie in 2009. He had arrived in the UK four years earlier from his native Nicaragua to work as an architect but had lost his job.

He felt like giving up, but PA Sophie inspired him to keep trying.

“She was five years younger than me but she was way ahead of me,” he said.

With Sophie’s support Oscar got a new job as an architect.

And six months into the romance the couple rented a flat with a housemate on the Isle of Dogs in East London.

Oscar recalled: “We loved life together, wandering around London, especially by the river. She would take photos, she taught me how to look at things.

"And we threw parties. We loved dancing.”

(Image: Tim Anderson)

The day of the fire, August 26, 2012, Oscar had arranged to meet Sophie at her friend’s birthday party but was late and decided to go home – a decision that still haunts him.

He said: “She was having such a good time, I wanted to let her have her night.

“I waited up for her but by 1am I had fallen asleep. The next thing I knew my phone was ringing.”

Sophie had arrived outside and seen the flames.

“She kept saying ‘Get out, get out’,” explained Oscar. “I looked out the window and could see flames reflected in the glass of the building opposite.”

Oscar and the flatmate tried to get down the stairs but were beaten back. He recalled: “The smoke was thick and it was so hot. The stairwell was black.”

An inquest revealed a fourth-floor neighbour caused the fire by leaving a damp towel over a lamp.

Oscar said: “We went back to the flat and I tried to ring Sophie to say we would stand on the balcony but her phone ran out.

"We could see people being evacuated and I felt better knowing Sophie was safe.”

But she was far from it. In a bid to save Oscar and warn their neighbours she had run into the building, now an inferno. She was found collapsed on the fourth floor.

“Lots of us were standing on our balconies, waiting,” recalled Oscar. “Then I saw her in the arms of the fireman.”

Fire crews evacuated Oscar and his flatmate and he went straight to Sophie.

She had suffered a cardiac arrest but paramedics managed to get her breathing again and Oscar followed her to hospital.

He said: “They told me she was stable. I sat there for eight hours planning the time I’d take off to look after her.

“Then I heard the alarms. She had had another cardiac arrest. They couldn’t save her.

"I went to say goodbye and simply told her she was the love of my life and that she was the bravest person in the world. She died in the dark, in that toxic smoke.”

Blankly, he explained their flat was spotless after the fire. “I moved out, I couldn’t stay there,” he admitted.

Almost as heavy as his grief is the burden of responsibility Oscar feels he now carries to try and justify Sophie’s sacrifice.

He pushes to live life to the full the way she wanted to live hers. “It is a big responsibility,” he said, his shoulders seeming to slump under the emotional strain.

“At work I want to do the best job possible for her. I went to New York because that’s somewhere we planned to go for her birthday.

"Every place I visit I take photos with her camera. I have done a course so I can take them as well as she did.

“Sophie’s always in my head. She always tells me what to do.

“I was very lucky to meet her.”