After a gas explosion at a Birmingham home, a woman was discovered dead, and police commended the "heroic" acts of neighbors who rescued a man alive from the fire debris. He remains in hospital in a serious condition after the blast at about 8.40 pm on Sunday, which damaged one house and severely disrupted three others.
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Sadly, a woman passed away after a gas explosion in Birmingham destroyed her home.
On Sunday, June 26, a gas explosion in Kingstanding, Birmingham, erupted, destroying one home while damaging several others.
According to West Midlands Ambulance Service, one woman was discovered dead at the scene. A second male was fortunately saved when neighbors risked the blazing debris and pulled him from the wreckage.
Credit: West Midlands Fire Service
"We're very sad to confirm that a woman has been found dead at the scene," West Midlands Fire Service said. The woman is yet to be formally identified.
The individual who was rescued from the damaged structure was sent to the hospital with "very significant injuries," according to the ambulance service, whose spokesperson described his condition as "life-threatening."
The ambulance crews treated four additional on-site sick people for minor wounds but did not transport them to the hospital.
Credit: West Midlands Fire Service
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One of the neighbors, who wished to remain unnamed, explained to Birmingham Live how he and other people entered the debris and were able to save the man.
He said: "Everyone was watching, the house was on fire, nobody was going in, so we could see a way in - so we went in the house, me and about a dozen others.”
"There was a guy in the back, we could hear the guy screaming, but he was trapped up against the fridge in the kitchen. The dust from the loft insulation was burning around us."
Credit: West Midlands Fire Service
"We managed to get to him, and pull him out - I still have his blood on my jeans. We got him out, and he ended up coming out on a mattress, but he was saying there was a woman in the house."
To keep their clothes damp and defend themselves from the fire, the neighbors who entered broke water pipes.
Before the emergency services got on the site, rushing neighbors were able to rescue the man from the wrecked home.
Credit: West Midlands Fire Service
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ITV claimed that one homeowner initially thought the explosion was an earthquake because it was audible up to two miles away.
He told how the explosion shook his home and broke windows, and a neighbor claimed that at first, they believed a bomb had gone off.
The rescue services have evacuated the occupants of several other nearby homes.
The National Grid, Cadent Gas, and the police are all helping to manage the aftermath of the explosion, and fire service area commander Steve Ball has called the situation "challenging."