JACK Breen knows he's a lucky man today.

He fell 80 feet from a window of the Top Storey Club -- and lived.

Now aged 68 and managing director of estate agency Gran Sol Properties Europe Ltd, Jack spoke to the BEN from Calpe on Spain's Costa Blanca where his company has an office.

"I'd started going to the club regularly right from the start. In fact, my membership card is numbered No 1", he said. "On that night, I went in at around 11pm. I knew about half the people in there.

"I was sitting having a drink at the opposite end of the room to the stairs, near the bar, when Bill Bohannon (the club manager) said that he could smell smoke and he went off downstairs.

"The next thing I knew the lights flashed out.

"Then, about half a minute later, there was an explosion in the room. A whoosh of hot air, no flames at all then, and all the oxygen went out of the room.

"It was pitch black and everyone was stumbling about in the dark. You couldn't breathe and we all went towards a window, which was broken somehow, possibly by the explosion.

"The next thing I remember was standing on the window ledge and people shouting at me: 'Don't jump -- the fire engines will be here soon.'

"Then I don't remember anything at all until I woke up the next morning in Bolton Royal Infirmary."

Jack had badly damaged his left hand in the fall, and had suffered 20 per cent burns in the explosion. He spent three months in hospital before being discharged, but counts himself lucky.

These days he spends his time between his Spanish estate agency businesses in Calpe and Preston, where he lives, and doesn't dwell on what might have been.

"I just get on with it," he insisted. "I must have a charmed life."

A charity fund was set up in the wake of the disaster. Later, Jack Breen received a cheque for £7.50. "I think I've still got it somewhere -- I never cashed it."