By Rashid Razaq
The Evening Standard
SALFORD, England — A woman aged 76 was critically ill today with 30 per cent burns after a gas explosion devastated a street.
Ten others, including four children, were hurt. One home was completely destroyed and at least four others were badly damaged in the blast in Salford at 7.15 this morning.
Greater Manchester Fire Service said a second adult and three children were rescued and taken to hospital as “walking wounded”. Three others were treated at the scene for minor wounds and two were hit by flying glass and debris and one man was injured when a ceiling collapsed.
More than 40 firefighters were involved in a search operation for several hours over fears that other residents could be buried under the debris in Silver Street which is next to the M62 motorway.
Sniffer dogs had indicated the presence of survivors but after nearly four hours fire chiefs said they believed everyone had been accounted for.
The blast tore through the terraced properties with people living five miles away reporting hearing a massive “booming noise”.
A fire service spokesman said gas was still believed to be leaking in Silver Street. National Grid engineers were at the scene.
Resident William Billinge was woken up by a “very loud bang” and said the explosion shook his house.
When he went outside to find out what had happened, he described seeing four houses destroyed. Mr Billinge, 65, said: “There’s nothing left of them. There is debris everywhere, all over the place. Four houses completely flattened.”
Carolyn Patten, 64, a retired office worker, said she was woken up by the blast. She said: “Pretty quickly we heard all the sirens and realised that something was going on down the other end of the road. We’ve been told a number of houses have been flattened and around seven people have been taken to hospital.”
Fiddlers Lane Community Primary School, in Fiddlers Lane, was closed to pupils due to the explosion and was providing shelter for evacuated residents.
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