It was 7.15am on Merlin Road, Irlam when Mary Bruns switched on her cooker to make a cup of tea. What was a morning ritual for the Salford pensioner precipitated a devastating explosion that destroyed not just Mary’s house, but four more on the row of terraced houses. In just seconds, five houses were completely destroyed and 15 people needed to be hospitalised.
Diane Rice, a resident of Irlam, recounted feeling the explosion rather than hearing it. After her son went out to investigate he reported that the remains of a house were scattered among the bushes on Merlin Road.
“The community was shocked, I remember those nearer to the site were evacuated” Rice says, looking back. She added the police provided overnight protection of Merlin Road and the surrounding areas.
“The road was taped off and emergency services arrived rather quickly within 20 minutes”.
This month marks 15 years since a gas explosion in Salford, Greater Manchester, left 15 people injured and four homes destroyed. The explosion devastated terraced houses of Merlin Road in the Irlam area at 7:15am on the 2nd of November 2010, homeowners describing a huge booming noise.
Geoff Ackroyd, director of the fire service operation claimed to the BBC that people “crawled over rubble” to reach trap residents before the fire brigade reached the scene.
A resident in her seventies at the heart of the blast was described as being in critical condition with 30 percent burns. Three children and two adults were taken to hospital and three other adults were treated on the scene.
One homeowner reported that his ceiling had collapsed and others sustained minor injuries from glass and other debris, a total of 15 people needing attention after the accident. 50 fire fighters were called to the epicentre and a police cordon was implemented to the surrounding area, 200 houses being affected by the blast.
Renovation work was underway in the housing association properties in Irlam when the explosion occurred. A Mr Paul Kay of Latchford was carrying out work at one of the properties as part of a kitchen installation project in the surrounding houses.
It was documented that Kay removed the gas meter at the house of Marie Burns and left it in an unsafe condition, the subsequent fracture filling her house with gas. When Burns turned the cooker on the house exploded, the epicentre of an explosion which injured 15 and evacuated every house in the area. Given the meter being left in a dangerous condition and previous work on the meter being sub-par, Kay was fined £1,000 for failing to secure the meter.
Christine Hudson of the local council described the scenes to the BBC as “absolutely devastating” and “like a war zone” and indicated her relief that nobody was fatally injured.
Kay was charged with failing to properly support a gas fitting when he appeared at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court. Nigel Lawrence of the Health and Safety Executive described the meter to the court as “fundamentally weak” after a botched fitting by an unknown party years before however Paul Kay was held partly responsible for the gas leak and subsequent explosion.
Irlam resident Dan Corker told the Guardian that “there were three houses flat” and “one half flat” when he left the house and reported his house remaining standing despite his windows shattering.
A year on from the incident, residents reported to the BBC that they were still waiting for the destroyed homes to be rebuilt and for a “return to normality”.
Resident Vinny Jones told reporters that the site was “an eyesore” and “an embarrassment”, Jones being able to return to his home after repairs.
Following the blast, City West Housing Trust submitted plans for a £600,000 rebuilding project to construct five new homes as like for like replications of the structures demolished by the explosion and in December 2013, compensation payouts were issued to five of the victims who suffered serious injury.
“The community was shocked, but we came together like only the British and northerners can do” remarked Diane when asked about how the residents of Merlin Road and Irlam bounced back from such calamity.
15 years later the physical signs are gone, but some scars remain. The houses were rebuilt and residents rehoused but some residents relocated while perceived mistakes from contractors bred distrust.
Ultimately 2nd of November 2010 proved both a challenge and a test of strength for the residents of Irlam.
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