TWO city centre workers have recalled their fear being trapped inside the cordon as the blaze swept through Sauchiehall Street.

Lyndsay Buchanan and Rebekah Nelson both arrived at work on the morning of March 22 believing a relatively small incident had occurred on the street, with Rebecca admitting she thought there had been a break in.

But, as the day progressed, the women were told by police they wouldn't be allowed to leave their office and their commute home had been massively disrupted.

Rebecca said: "I was actually walking up in the morning and there were fire trucks but Sauchiehall Street wasn't actually closed yet so I just walked by thinking 'maybe someone had broke in'.

"I walked to work and then when I got there there were flames shooting out the building.

"We were locked in the building and there was a bit of concern about how far it would spread, where it would spread to and obviously the safety of getting home or getting out."

Recalling the day, Lyndsay added: "[I remember] the smoke and the smell and the difficulty in getting anywhere with the whole city centre basically being shut off, all the buses diverted, no trains running.

EXCLUSIVE: Blaze may NOT have started in Victoria's nightclub

"It was so busy. There were a few people in the office who were concerned about how they were getting home.

"Would it spread to the office? Would we have to be evacuated? Would there be a problem? I think for most people in town that day there was a bit of confusion and a bit of panic as to how big is this? How many people are affected? Is anybody hurt or injured?

"It was a bit frantic that day. Especially because you couldn't get anywhere for traffic, it was really busy even when we did get out the office to try and get home. The city centre was basically at a standstill and jam-packed."

Retired firefighter Tom Aitken watched on in horror as more than 100 of his former colleagues battled the blaze.

READ MORE: The day Glasgow stood still as iconic street burned

He said: "I remember being shocked at what had happened because everybody knows Glasgow as being the tinderbox city, it's always been classed as that, and I really thought the fire safety measures would have been so robust that something like that wasn't possible to happen.

"I wonder now 'is it any better? is there going to be another big fire in Glasgow? have the safety measures been put in place?'.

"I'm out the job now and I don't know about how they check all the different premises and what risks they've got but it's obviously not working when we've got two big fires like we've had. I honestly, honestly wonder what's going to be next."

READ MORE: Glasgow workers tell of fear trapped inside cordon

The 64-year-old added: "There's an underlying lack of confidence, not in the fires service because the guys do an amazing job, but in the legislation ... we were lucky there were no fatalities at these two incidents, we were really, really lucky."

But, even one year on, the impact the blaze had on the city is still felt.

Lyndsay said: "When they shut this part of the street off, because it was shut off for so long, most of the buses would stop on Hope Street and people would cut down this way to get to maybe say Burger King, Starbucks, the bank so, most people weren't wanting to get off the bus and walk in a massive circle so they were probably just as affected."

For all your breaking Glasgow news, click here, or head to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages