AceShowbiz -

Kate Winslet has a funny story to tell over her scary experience escaping the inferno that destroyed Richard Branson's private Caribbean home last August. The Oscar winner made an appearance on BBC America's "The Graham Norton Show", and shared her amazement at her first instinct at the moment, which was putting on a bra.

"It was genuinely very scary, it really was," admitted the 36-year-old when recounting the moment. "I mean, we did wake up at 4:30 in the morning to hear the sounds of some of Richard's nephews voices yelling that there was a fire. And I jumped up and ran immediately towards the fire, because clearly I thought I could put it out."

The "Contagion" actress soon realized it wasn't the safest idea. She then turned back around and found her children, Mia and Joe, standing at their bedroom door. She recounted, "I said, 'It's a fire, it's fine. Go back inside just for two minutes and just close the door.' Then I'm thinking, 'Now what do I do?' Ran into the bedroom, and put on a bra."

The April Wheeler of "Revolutionary Road" went on to say, "In disastrous moments like that, you do the strangest things. So I started to put on a bra, and then thought that's gonna take me too long, off came the bra, on with the T-shirt, grabbed the bag, grabbed the children and picked up granny."

Kate was also modest when addressing reports that she saved Richard's mother, Eve. "I carried her down the stairs is the truth of it," she insisted. She further explained, "We were all at the top of some very slippery stone steps and in the middle of a hurricane - it was so dramatic, there was lashing rain and it really did feel like being in a movie."

"In truth, I carried Eve Branson down the stairs," stressed the estranged wife of director Sam Mendes, before pointing out, "I have to say Eve Branson is an extraordinary stoic, powerful lady and she could have totally made it out on her own." She added, "I just helped that tiny little bit."