Author Topic: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral  (Read 2160 times)

Offline Millie

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Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« on: March 26, 2017, 09:17:18 am »
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39396136


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Offline Millie

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2017, 09:24:07 am »
Dozens injured in Wirral explosion
22 minutes ago
 From the section Liverpool
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Media captionFootage from the Liverpool Echo showed the extent of the damage

Two people have been seriously injured and 32 others hurt after several buildings collapsed in a suspected gas explosion on Merseyside.

Houses shook and windows smashed in the blast - described as sounding like an earthquake - leaving bricks and debris strewn on roads in Bebington, Wirral.

A number of houses in the area were evacuated and more than 100 people were moved overnight to a nearby church.
A dance studio for children, which was unoccupied at the time, was destroyed.
Dan Stephens, chief officer at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, said the scale of damage is considerable.
"It's what we would describe as a total collapse, or the explosion has blown the walls out, which has caused the roof to collapse," he said.
"It's a very significant debris field and [there is] lots of structural damage to the surrounding buildings."

Image copyrightLEW HOPKINS/ GOOGLE STREETVIEW
Image caption
Images (top) show the aftermath of the collapse and the building beforehand (below)

Emergency services were called to a "major incident" at about 21:15 GMT.

The seriously injured people were taken to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool. Others, less badly hurt, were treated at the Countess of Chester and Arrowe Park hospitals in Merseyside. One person was taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said.
Ch Insp David Westby, of Merseyside Police, said an investigation was under way.

He said: "We've got officers at all the hospitals. Detectives are gathering the relevant information in relation to victims and we will commence the investigation... from this point on."
Eyewitness Adam Dingwell, 36, described seeing someone lying in the street as he drove through Port Sunlight at the time of the explosion.
"We pulled straight over and tried to establish what had happened. Someone came running from the direction of the noise saying that there had been an explosion and a building had been destroyed.
"When we pulled up we could see....someone was lying in the street", he said.
The fire service has warned the after effects of the explosion will last for some time.
"This incident is likely to be protracted. This is likely to last several days. There is very significant damage, so it will be some time before people will be allowed back into their homes," Mr Stephens said.

Image copyrightTOM DAGNALL
Image caption

The destroyed building housed Complete Works dance studios which teaches children from the age of 3
The violent explosion was heard by many people living in the Bebington area. Lew Hopkins, who lives close to the site, said: "It sounded like an earthquake. Our whole house shook. It sounded like the windows were about to smash in.
"I know people about five, six miles away and they heard the explosion as well. Straight away I ran into the street and all the neighbours were outside."
Another resident, Mark Hamley, said: "There was a sense of quiet at first. Then you'd hear the odd shout or scream and cry.
"My main concern was for my girlfriend and my baby. I wanted to know they were safe. I put some clothes on, went outside and by the time that happened, the police were on the scene."

Image caption
Many people in the area felt the blast and came out to see what had happened
Josh Parry, of The Liverpool Echo, told BBC News the dance studio was next door to a Chinese restaurant, where a number of customers may have been injured.
He described a "significant" emergency response with about 12 ambulances and between 30 and 40 firefighters on site.
"There's been a huge amount of National Grid workers here, a huge response from the fire and ambulance and police, but also five or six accounts from people in the area that said yesterday they could smell gas in the area.
"That has not, I must stress, come officially from anywhere yet, but that is something that a number of people who live in the area have said to me," he added.

Image caption
The police cordon around the explosion site exceeded 200m
Local MP Alison McGovern said: "I live in New Ferry. I obviously felt it, didn't know what it was and then it became clear that there had been this very large explosion.
"There's very, very little we can say at this point. I would just ask people to stay away if they can, keep clear of the area and just let the police and the emergency services do their job."

Image caption
The emergency services set up an incident response unit in New Ferry
A local churchman, pastor Aaron Partington, opened the doors of the My Life Church in Bebington to offer food and shelter to residents forced from their homes.
"There's been over a hundred people through the doors here. There's been a lot of stunned people," he said.
"A lot of people just feeling really, really at a loss.
"You kind of see this stuff happening on the news in other places, you don't really think it's going to happen on your doorstep."

Image caption
People affected by the explosion were offered refuge and support at a nearby church
A message posted on the Complete Works Facebook page said: "We are absolutely devastated that our lovely dance studios were impacted by tonight's events but first and foremost we are so very grateful that no one was in them at the time and now we hope there are no serious injuries and that everyone local is safe."
More than £600 has already been donated to help the dance school recover from the loss of its building.
Lauren Dickson, who set up the Just Giving page to raise funds, wrote: "Please donate anything you can to get Complete Works studios back on their feet.
"Complete Works was a home to 100s of children taught by hardworking Kim McDonald and Victoria Charlton. A devastating gas leak destroyed the whole building and all its contents."


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Offline Crosby Nick

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2017, 09:37:25 am »
Jeez,  huge amount of damage and buildings destroyed. Terrible for all involved,  the only saving grace is that it happened at night when a lot of the buildings were empty.

Offline Millie

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2017, 09:50:36 am »
Jeez,  huge amount of damage and buildings destroyed. Terrible for all involved,  the only saving grace is that it happened at night when a lot of the buildings were empty.

I know - that was a Dance School - thank God the explosion did not happen earlier in the day when it would have been full of young children.
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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2017, 09:55:03 am »
Unofficial of course but if people smell gas they should always phone the emergency number straight away and follow their instructions.

All those people injured, homes destroyed and the knock on effect for weeks if not months for everyone in the neighbourhood could have been prevented.  Hopefully there'll be no deaths and all recover in time.

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2017, 10:08:01 am »
It's damn lucky that no-one was killed in an explosion of that size!
As has been said; It's lucky it didn't happen during the day.
Got to hope that the businesses that got damaged can recover and not go under.
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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2017, 10:38:21 am »
Terrible for all concerned.  Have a few mates near the area but thankfully they're safe.
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Offline Statto Red

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2017, 01:22:25 pm »
I know - that was a Dance School - thank God the explosion did not happen earlier in the day when it would have been full of young children.

Indeed, the whole area is very busy during the day with the shopping precinct is only yards away, also the Road itself[Boundary Road] is one of the main Roads in the area linking New Chester Road with Bebington that's busy with traffic.
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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2017, 01:33:18 pm »
Christ, my dad lives just a couple hundred yards down the road and cycles that way pretty often. He's fine though.

As many have said, lucky it didn't happen earlier. The area can get pretty busy and if kids had been at the dance school, it really doesn't bear thinking about.

Offline reniformis

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2017, 04:50:41 pm »
As many have said, lucky it didn't happen earlier. The area can get pretty busy and if kids had been at the dance school, it really doesn't bear thinking about.

Yeah, but if, as reported, it was a gas leak then it may have been dealt with before anything happened if there had been people around to notice. Who knows.

I live a couple of minutes walk away by the river park and only heard a loud bang, like someone had let off a firework in the road. Yet people miles away said their house shook. Dunno how that works.

The really grim thought I had was that the co-op funeral parlour is next door, albeit with a gap. Can you imagine losing someone close to you, lying in a coffin and now buried under a pile of rubble? I pray that hasn't happened, from the photos it looks like the place is still standing.
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Offline Millie

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #10 on: March 26, 2017, 06:54:09 pm »
Yeah, but if, as reported, it was a gas leak then it may have been dealt with before anything happened if there had been people around to notice. Who knows.

I live a couple of minutes walk away by the river park and only heard a loud bang, like someone had let off a firework in the road. Yet people miles away said their house shook. Dunno how that works.

The really grim thought I had was that the co-op funeral parlour is next door, albeit with a gap. Can you imagine losing someone close to you, lying in a coffin and now buried under a pile of rubble? I pray that hasn't happened, from the photos it looks like the place is still standing.

According to the Echo - the gas board where in the area the day before because of reported smells of gas.  We heard the blast over the water by the way.


“The gas supply to the main property involved has been isolated. We are checking our local gas mains network and so far there has been no indication of any faults on it.

“We were called a report of a smell in Bebington Road on Friday evening (March 24) which we investigated and no trace of gas was found. We also received several other reports of a smell from across the wider area and our emergency engineers investigated all these reports and found no indication of a gas leak.

“There are no indications that any of these reports were connected to yesterday’s explosion.

“If people think they can smell gas they should call 0800 111 999*all calls are recorded and may be monitored.Our thoughts are with the injured and we wish them a prompt recovery"





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Offline redbyrdz

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #11 on: March 26, 2017, 07:45:19 pm »
According to the Echo - the gas board where in the area the day before because of reported smells of gas.  We heard the blast over the water by the way.


“The gas supply to the main property involved has been isolated. We are checking our local gas mains network and so far there has been no indication of any faults on it.

“We were called a report of a smell in Bebington Road on Friday evening (March 24) which we investigated and no trace of gas was found. We also received several other reports of a smell from across the wider area and our emergency engineers investigated all these reports and found no indication of a gas leak.

“There are no indications that any of these reports were connected to yesterday’s explosion.

“If people think they can smell gas they should call 0800 111 999*all calls are recorded and may be monitored.Our thoughts are with the injured and we wish them a prompt recovery"







So they had several reports about the smell of gas 'in the wider area' , but couldn't find anything? Sounds more like they missed it.
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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2017, 02:54:06 am »
Some serious questions are going to be asked about the Gas Boards failure to find the leaking Gas, & some serious compensation going to be paid out too not just home owners but businesses affected in the area. Tells how bad it was even the Chester line trains got cancelled & replaced by buses Saturday night, & the rail line is about 1/4 mile away.
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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2017, 08:47:09 am »
Fortunate that nobody was killed.

Seems that there was a big failing somewhere, lucky it didn't result in any fatalities.

I'm sure there will be a big investigation into what happened.

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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2017, 10:21:17 am »
My bestie lives up Eastham way, just off New Chester Road, so she probably heard this.

Reminds me of when the workers ruptured the gas main up on Islington a couple of months back.  I only live a couple of hundred yards up the road and you couldn't smell anything there, but when you got to the junction,  not far from the royal, the smell was really strong.  That didn't tell me where it was though - you'd think British Gas would know where their own gas mains were.

Makes me a bit worried about what could have happened.  :o
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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #15 on: March 27, 2017, 12:30:54 pm »
Friend's shop has been wiped out :(  She's had a shit year and all, this just tops it off.
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Re: Suspected Gas Explosion Wirral
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2018, 07:56:44 pm »
Finally charges brought

https://www.merseyside.police.uk/news/latest-news/2018/01/man-56-charged-in-connection-with-new-ferry-explosion/#5a5e308f429f9

Merseyside Police can confirm a 56-year-old man has today, Tuesday 16th January, been charged in connection with an explosion at the junction of Boundary Road and Circular Drive, New Ferry, Wirral, on the evening of 25th March 2017.

Pascal Blasio, of Gillingham, Kent, is charged with causing an explosion likely to endanger life. The particulars of the charge being that on 25th March 2017 at Birkenhead unlawfully and maliciously caused by an explosive substance an explosion of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.

He has been released on conditional bail and will appear at Wirral magistrates court on Wednesday 4th April 2018.

Contract Natural Gas Limited (CNG), an independent gas supplier which provides gas exclusively to business customers, has also been charged with an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to discharge general health/safety duty to a person other than an employee. The particulars of the charge being that between 22/8/2012 and 25/3/2017 at Birkenhead, failed to conduct its undertaking to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of persons not in its employment, including Lewis Jones, by failing to ensure that the redundant live gas service to 43 Bebington Road was disconnected following removing the meter.