My Miracle Gas Blast Escape
Published: October 26, 2006
A BURNLEY great-grandmother has told of her miracle escape after a gas blast ripped through her upstairs flat, leaving a gaping hole in the wall.
Shocked mother-of-six Mrs Jean Atkinson (74) walked unscathed from the wreckage of her sheltered home in St John’s Court, off Words-worth Street, at 1 a.m. on Saturday, just minutes after a huge explosion sent a tremor through 23 neighbouring homes.
“It’s a wonder I got out. Someone up there must like me!” she said.
Her living room windows shattered and large stones rained down on nearby cars and gardens, with many of Mrs Atkinson’s ornaments and trinkets blown into neighbours’ hedges in the Accent-owned complex.
“I went to bed at 9-30 p.m. and about 12-45 a.m. I heard a big bang,” she explained.
“I came out of my bedroom to see what had happened but I couldn’t open the living room door at first. When I managed to push it open and looked around, all my walls had gone. I’d no idea what had gone on.”
Poor sleeper Mrs Atkinson, who is also diabetic, had at first put the loud noise down to a road accident nearby or scaffolding falling.
She was taken to Burnley General Hospital suffering from shock, but was released after a couple of hours to stay with her husband, Alan, who lives in nearby Harding Street. Housing company bosses have arranged accommodation for her at the Alexander Hotel, Burnley, while her flat is made safe for her return in six to eight weeks’ time.
“I’ve just got a few clothes with me,” said Mrs Atkinson, who used to run Rosegrove Railway Club and Plumbe Street Miners’ Club and is a regular at bingo sessions at St Augustine’s RC Church.
“I don’t know what I’ve lost because it’s such a mess and they won’t let me back,” she said.
“The explosion was so big that one of the dolls I had in the window landed on the roof of the flats opposite and part of my window blind has gone right over those flats and landed in the garden beyond.”
She said that, just last month, she had let her insurance lapse as she could not afford to pay the renewal bill.
Neighbour Mrs Mary Hodgson told the Express how she witnessed the full force of the blast as she prepared for bed after herself having a lucky escape – she had been saying goodbye to a friend outside just minutes before the blast. “It was like a rocket going off,” she said.
The 59-year-old good Samaritan, who called the emergency services and shouted to alert her neighbours to the danger on their doorstep, helped lead Mrs Atkinson to safety. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. I missed the war, but I thought someone had dropped a bomb,” she said.
Several neighbours were evacuated in the wake of the blast, with Mrs Atkinson’s deaf 92-year-old downstairs neighbour oblivious to the carnage above until police battered on her door.
“If it had blown the other way the man next door would not have stood a chance. And if Jean had been in her living room I don’t like to think what would have happened,” said Mrs Hodgson. ”
The cause of the blast is being investigated by gas officials, although it is not believed to be connected to new meters which were recently installed in the properties.
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