Man killed as gas blast obliterates his home
‘I could see bits of rubble scattered on the road, and a space where a house should have been’
A MAN was killed when his house was destroyed in a suspected gas explosion yesterday.
Emergency services in York recovered the body of the 63-year-old, named locally as Paul Wilmott, from the rubble of the detached home after the blast.
The house was obliterated by the explosion, with charred timber visible among piles of bricks and personal belongings. The cul-de-sac was littered with broken glass and wood.
More than a dozen other houses in the road, in Haxby, a village just outside the city, were damaged by the explosion. The homes either side of the destroyed house were evacuated.
Emergency services were called to the scene at about 7.30am and the area was cordoned off following the explosion, which some neighbours thought was an earthquake.
One resident said the explosion sounded like an aeroplane crash. The man, who did not wish to be named, was around 150 yards away at the time of the blast.
“The house has been completely flattened,” he said. “It sounded as if a bus or something had crashed into a house, or like an aeroplane crash. All the properties adjacent to the one that’s blown up have got damaged windows and garages.”
The force of the explosion was felt and heard across the surrounding area.
Roger Holdsworth, 71, who lives a few doors down from the destroyed house, told The Daily Telegraph: “I was asleep in bed when it went bang. It woke me.
“My wife said it was just the most tremendous explosion. The emergency services were there very quickly. There’s substantial damage to adjacent properties. The house that had the explosion is just a heap of rubble.”
June Turner, who lives in the street, said: “I said to myself I’m going to have a lie-in this morning but I was actually up and I felt a bang, and I thought ‘Oh I wonder what happened?’ Then I looked out the window and I could see bits of rubble scattered on the road, and a space where a house should have been. It was quite frightening.”
Windows were smashed on other houses in the street and tiles were blown off the roof next door. At one house, wooden shutters had been ripped in half and were clinging to the wall with what remained of their hinges. Insp Steve Breen, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “A number of houses have been quite severely damaged and we are working with structural engineers to assess how much damage has been done.”
According to reports, Mr Wilmott was a multimedia officer at Leeds Beckett University. He was alone in the property at the time of the explosion.
Mr Breen said the man’s next of kin had been informed and officers were supporting members of his family.
It is believed to have been an isolated incident. No one else was injured in the blast, although paramedics examined two other people on the scene.