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The scene of the explosion last night West Midlands Fire Service

Locals rescue man from house after suspected gas explosion that killed woman

A man is also currently in life-threatening condition following the explosion.

A WOMAN HAS died following a suspected gas explosion that destroyed a house in Birmingham yesterday.

West Midlands Fire Service confirmed the casualty earlier this morning in a tweet

“We’re very sad to confirm that a woman has been found dead at the scene of last night’s explosion in Kingstanding. Our thoughts and sympathies are with everyone affected,” said West Midlands Fire Service.

A man is also in a life-threatening condition following the blast in north Birmingham.

The incident itself occurred last night, with fire crews first responding at approximately 8.38pm.

Most of the house was destroyed in the explosion, with damage also being caused to neighbouring houses and nearby vehicles.

In a statement in the early hours of this morning, West Midlands Fire Service said that they were making “good progress” at the scene.

embedded267621222 The scene in Dulwich Road, Kingstanding Joe Giddens / PA Joe Giddens / PA / PA

A drone is currently being used to “identify any hot spots”.

Following the explosion, several local residents had to climb past flaming debris, through dust and rubble to pull the injured man from the ruins of the house.

One man, who declined to give his name, told the PA news agency: “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 (of the house), 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.

“We managed to get to him, and pull him out – I still have his blood on my jeans.

“We got him out, he ended up coming out on a mattress.

“But he was saying there was a woman in the house.”

“His clothes had been blown off, you couldn’t even see him, he was covered in blood,” added the rescuer.

Explosion-Dulwich-Road-Kingstanding-2 Neighbouring houses were badly damaged in the explosion West Midlands Fire Service West Midlands Fire Service

He added: “We just went straight through the (front) door, and I thought I went through the house’s door – but it was actually the next door house’s door, because the house door had been destroyed.

“We come out to the back, and then we could hear the man geezer screaming, and we dug him out.

“He was in the kitchen, lying flat on the floor, with his back against a fridge or washing machine.

“He was going ‘don’t pull me – my legs’ and I said ‘mate, we’re going to have to take you out now’.”

The group of rescuers broke damaged water pipes, amid the rubble, to try to douse their own clothes, to protect from the flames.

Standing at the police cordon, watching the emergency services working under powerful spotlights amid the devastation, the resident added: “There’s nothing left of that house at all.

“We went through the house – and that house is gone.”

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said people at the scene rescued a man from the destroyed house but he had “very significant injuries” and was taken to hospital.

Four other men suffered minor injuries and were assessed by ambulance crews at the scene, WMAS added.

A spokesperson said: “A man was helped from the property by people at the scene but had suffered very serious injuries.

“After assessment and treatment at the scene, he was taken on blue lights to the major trauma centre at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham with the MERIT team travelling with the ambulance.

“His condition on arrival at hospital was described as life threatening.

“Four further men have been assessed by ambulance crews for minor conditions but have been discharged at the scene.

“Members of the Hazardous Area Response Team continue to work with specialist firefighters at the scene.”

Birmingham Police tweeted that the West Midlands Fire Service believe it was a gas explosion and had taken over command of the incident.

Additional reporting by Tadgh McNally

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    Mute Nigel O'Neill
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    May 3rd 2014, 8:44 AM

    Seems a nice guy but after the whole Gilmartin interview on the Late Late last night, on top of everything else of course…how could anyone consider voting FF!??

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    Mute Patrick Bryan
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    May 3rd 2014, 8:24 AM

    “…the MEP is one again sitting pretty ..” who writes this?!

    81
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    Mute trebloc01
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    May 3rd 2014, 8:28 AM

    Not good at responding to email from constituents

    71
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    Mute Niall Power
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    May 3rd 2014, 9:22 AM

    Regardless of this mans apparent popularity,
    Ff destroyed this country and our children’s future,
    Ff people are only motivated by what’s best for the party and by personal enrichment,
    Ff are like a cancer on this country they are in remission now,
    But slowly and silently they will come back,
    And continue to squeeze the life out of Ireland at your expense!

    Why are Irish people so easily fooled by these chancers?
    Remember party first!

    61
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    Mute Johnny Downes
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    May 3rd 2014, 10:15 AM

    This guy is more of a celebrity than a politician. What has he done for his constituents? Apart from being the nice FF guy, cutting ribbons, and presenting awards, and grabbing photo ops, what has he really contributed to to the betterment of his constituency, and the country.

    50
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    Mute Nigel O'Neill
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    May 3rd 2014, 11:36 AM

    Good point..my thoughts too

    23
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    Mute Paul Roche
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    May 3rd 2014, 12:40 PM

    Strange,
    Other commenters are popular when they criticise him for “parish pump” politics, while the “what has he done for his constituents” question is equally popular.
    Brian Crowley has done excellent work for the country, not just his constituents, through his active participation in EU business. He has a record that shows independence from party politics while working for all of us. Framework 7 is one hell of an achievement, and we are seeing benefit from it, although it’s sad that you don’t.
    We need a lot more people like him in Europe.

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    Mute Solbank Sabadell
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    May 4th 2014, 8:26 AM

    As in 07 this is 2014 and even then he didn’t show up for most of votes. Come on now.

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    Mute Solbank Sabadell
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    May 4th 2014, 8:38 AM

    He holds record for poorest attendance 27%, should he then receive the €7,056.87 salary per month of an MEP?

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    Mute The Hungry Boards
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    May 3rd 2014, 7:54 AM

    “Poll-topper” sounds like a rude insult.

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    Mute richard fennessy
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    May 3rd 2014, 9:35 AM

    U vote Fianna Fáil because your daddy and mammy did. God fu-/:n help us

    36
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    Mute MonaghanRichie
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    May 3rd 2014, 9:21 AM

    Afraid of not knowing his euro parliament so wouldn’t take part in quiz & still got his rehearsed lines wrong still a Fianna failure as far as I’m concerned & 36% of Fianna FAILZHEIMERS will vote for him have they learnt nothing from recent times ?

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    Mute corkboi
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    May 3rd 2014, 8:35 AM

    Brian doesn’t have to canvass , boi

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    Mute Henry Shields
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    May 3rd 2014, 9:35 AM

    Fianna Failer but I have to say Brian is a genuine man. He has time for people and would stop to talk if he can.

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    Mute Irish Cottage Rental
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    May 3rd 2014, 12:46 PM

    So Fianna Fáil trash the country and yet polls indicate that the voters of Ireland South are going to vote for this guy in their thousands. We get what we deserve!

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    Mute Dan Cronin
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    May 3rd 2014, 11:47 AM

    Extremely petty actually ,Brian is the best politician in this country able to speak and debate on any issue at any time.all I see here is the usual rubbish about ff which by what I hear ff caused all the trouble in every bank in the world, yes there was issues but lots of parties have issues like Sinn Fein who appear to bbquite able to forget its criminal past time and time again

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    Mute Nigel O'Neill
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    May 3rd 2014, 4:25 PM

    @Dan Cronin…you obviously think we are all fools when it comes to FF and you must not have seen the Gilmartin interview last night in the Late Late either!? Your party was and is rotten to the core

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    Mute Dan Cronin
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    May 3rd 2014, 4:37 PM

    Mr O’neill I believe a man was on talking about people who were willing to throw money around trying to curry favours as wrong surely as the man who took it.i noticed you missed the bit of my post on the shinners and your post is also very disingenuous to the thousands of ordinary decent people who are members of our party.

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    Mute Barry
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    May 3rd 2014, 10:59 AM

    Are there not 5 vacant seats at present?

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    Mute eastsmer
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    May 3rd 2014, 1:23 PM

    A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.
    They will never lose, we don’t see any of the good times they had, but when they are losing money we have to pay.

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    Mute eastsmer
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    May 3rd 2014, 1:28 PM

    Hey, wrong article, sorry about that!

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    Mute Thomas Dooly
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    May 3rd 2014, 2:28 PM

    Good comment,though ;)

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    Mute Solbank Sabadell
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    May 4th 2014, 8:18 AM

    Brian Crowley is the son of a FF TD Flor Crowley who was famous because he never spoke in the dail in his entire career. Brian is the exact same never speaks for anyone but himself at election time. Its horrible to think that he has won the lotto twice being elected rarely showed and his greed brings him back to the trough. Its horrible to think that the people of Cork could re-elect him. He can’t do the quiz as he definitely doesn’t know the answers.

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    Mute Ben Coughlan
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    May 4th 2014, 5:26 PM

    Most ineffective MEP we have, I believe this guy is part of the reason why the south has been left behind regarding generating good jobs, or replacing the shrinking pharma and medical devices industries with a viable alternative.

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