‘IT WAS LIKE A WAR ZONE’
CHILDREN HAD 5 OPS IN 10 DAYS HURT MUM ‘HAS LONG WAY TO GO’ GOLDFISH WAS FOUND ALIVE:
WHEN Mervin David finished work on a warm summer afternoon he would never have imagined that his family’s life was about to change dramatically – for ever.
On Wednesday, June 24, the 59-year-old maintenance worker popped into Tesco like on any normal day, before picking up his wife, care worker Vicky, from work in Ystradgynlais.
The pair made their way home and had barely entered their home in Coelbren when they got a phone call from a friend who said something bad had happened in nearby Seven Sisters.
It was where their son Michael lived with his partner Jessica and their two young children, Reuben, five, and two-yearold Elliott.
Mervin and Vicky immediately turned around and drove to their terraced house in Church Road at around 2.50pm, unsure of what they’d be met with.
There had been an enormous explosion at the home while 31-yearold Jessica Williams and her children were inside.
“As I approached the bottom of the road, I could sense something was wrong and as we got closer it was like going through a war zone,” Mervin described.
“I got out of the car and I didn’t know I could run, but I ran down the street. There were hundreds of people there milling about.
“Adam, a firefighter and my friend’s son, grabbed me and just told me ‘they are all alive’.
“Adam took me closer and it looked like some
thing had been demolished. I was told the twoyear-old, Elliott, was in a neighbour’s house.
“There were three ambulances outside. Reuben was in one and Jess was in another one. They
wouldn’t let us see Jess, but Vicky was allowed to see Reuben.”
Emergency services had been called to reports of the explosion at around 2.05pm that day, which had completely destroyed
the family’s home. Some 14 houses on the street were evacuated.
All three family members were found alive but had been critically injured.
In July South Wales
Police concluded that the explosion, which also led to other properties being badly damaged, was likely to have been caused by old gas cylinders.
Mervin said that the boy’s father, 35-year-old Michael, travelled to hospital by air ambulance with Reuben, while he and Vicky were escorted there by police. Elliott was also taken by air ambulance, while Jessica was taken by road ambulance to Morriston Hospital.
“We went round the back of the house in the police car and could see it was absolutely obliterated,” said Mervin.
“We went down the M4 and I’ve never been in a car so fast in my life. At Magor services, Somerset police cars were there waiting for us. The police were fantastic, we got to the hospital just as Elliott was landing. He landed minutes after Reuben.
“We were met at the hospital and put in a room, hospital staff talked to us and we saw pictures of the scene from the news.
“Michael came in and said we could see Reuben. If Michael wasn’t there I would have walked straight past him, I wouldn’t have recognised him. The boys were put in rooms next to each other – it was like two rooms in a room. That was our home for the next week.
“Doctors told us they were okay, but they couldn’t tell us if it was going to be fine. I was in a state.”
A week later the family were given a place to stay at Paul’s House, a Bristol Children’s Hospital building just across the road from the children, who were still very unwell.
Mervin explained: “At first they were more worried about Elliott, but he responded better to treatment and was allowed out in three weeks. Reuben was allowed out in just short of four weeks.
“They had a total of five operations each in 10 days. As they started picking up, it was like we were having little victories: when they were ready to put on pyjamas for the first time, and then taking them for their first walk in the hospital garden. Then we were able to take them out for half a day. It just started to get a little bit easier.
“When the boys were allowed to leave hospital, they came back to stay at our house in Coelbren.”
Meanwhile, Mervin and other family members had been doing up a house owned by his sister to get a home ready for Jessica, Michael and the two boys.
“We finished the house a few weeks ago – it was mainly painting and making it into a home. We were just waiting for Jess to come home from hospital.
“There were ups and downs every day while she was in hospital, her progress was very slow.”
He said one of the most difficult days for the family was around June 30 when Jessica contracted an infection.
In a public post at the time, the family explained: “Unfortunately at 3.30 this morning we were called down to the hospital along with Lynfa, Jessica’s mum. Jessica had deteriorated overnight.
“Fearing the worst, we made our way to the hospital. They even had a police car to fetch Mike from Bristol down to us. Thankfully when we got there they had given her antibiotics which had kicked in and she was responding well. She had an infection which had stopped her kidneys from working.”
They added: “We are all very tired and know you
are all thinking of and praying for Jessica. Thank you for your support.”
Mervin described the first time he and Vicky heard from her on August 15, nearly two months after the explosion.
“Vicky and I went down to the caravan we own down West Wales and Jess sent us a recording of her voice the first time she was able to speak and we both absolutely broke down.
“Then a month later she
sent a video of herself walking and that picked everyone up. She was allowed home on September 6 and that’s the first time we saw her. She spent the day with us and then went back to hospital.”
From that point, Mervin said Jessica had been back and forth to hospital a number of times.
About 14 weeks after the explosion, on October 5, she announced on social media that she had finally
settled at home and the traumatic experience made her realise “just how lucky I am to still be here”.
Mervin said the whole family were incredibly thankful for the support shown by the Neath Port Talbot community and wider public.
Following the blast Seven Sisters councillor Stephen Hunt set up a Gofundme page to raise money to help those affected, which reached over £22,000.
It has now been closed and the money transferred to the Church Road Rebuild by Kindness trust fund, which aims to help rebuild the damaged homes.
Mervin thanked his friend and builder Barrie Scully, who had gone out of his way to oversee the project in his own time, as well as father and son builders Ian Davies and Huw Davies, who had also volunteered to work on the homes.
He said while sifting through the rubble the builders were keeping an eye out for anything that could be salvaged, and in doing so found something quite amazing.
“They managed to recover some fridge magnets with pictures of the boys on them,” said Mervin. “They also managed to find the fish tank, and miraculously the fish was still alive and swimming in it. This was on July 17 and as I talk to you I can see it happily swimming in its tank today.”
Mervin said that nearly four months on, things had got easier for the family but that there was still a long way to go.
He said: “Jess has got a long way to go, but she will get there. It’s going to change her life but her spirit is fantastic. She’s thrilled to be home with the children. After her post on Facebook she had lots of messages of support, people are relieved to have her home – it’s touching.
“We are so grateful for the support we’ve had. One day we were out in Bristol, just at the bank, and a woman who I’ve never seen before approached us and gave us some toys for the kids.
“We also had a cheque and a bible sent to us from someone in Scotland. There are so many kind people who have done things like that for us and I would never be able to thank them all.
“Councillors Stephen Hunt and Dean Cawsey have been brilliant, helping us through everything, and the doctors and nurses at Bristol Hospital were fantastic with us. When we can we want to revisit them to say thank you.
“So many people have reached out to us, donated and offered us their expertise, and we want to thank everyone who has helped.
“It has been a horrendous situation, but it really has shown the best in people.”