IN PICTURES: Gas explosion rocks Great Barr home
A mother and daughter were lucky to escape with only minor injuries after a gas explosion at their home in Great Barr, which caused severe damage to the inside of the property.
The blast happened at 9.20am this morning at a house in cul-de-sac Calverton Grove, with two crews and 10 firefighters from West Bromwich Fire Service attending.
Their first priority was making sure everyone was safe and out the house before calling out a structural engineer and National Grid to establish the cause.
Margarita 'Maggie' Long was downstairs with her 16-year-old daughter Dulcie Long getting ready for college upstairs.
Dulcie suddenly heard a number of loud explosions coming from downstairs, with her mom and dog in the kitchen.
She ran down to rescue both and managed to escape the house luckily with no injury.
Dulcie said: "My mirror fell off my wall and I suddenly heard loads of explosions everywhere downstairs. It only lasted for two or three seconds but it was unbelievable.
"All I could think about was grabbing my mom and dog and running out the house as quickly as we could.
"I managed to turn all the electric off as I ran out to stop anything else from happening.
"Looking back now we're both very lucky to have escaped at all, that's the most important thing. It could have been so much worse."
Both were treated for shock at the scene by the fire service, with Miss Long suffering only minor injuries despite being in the room of the explosion.
It is not yet known how the blast was caused and how much damage has been done to the property.
Watch Commander Jason Handley said the gas explosion had 'affected one of the neighbouring properties and the windows at the back of the house had been blown out.'
West Midlands Fire Service tweeted that the blast had 'one hundred percent' destroyed the kitchen.
Another neighbour Les Nock, 86, was ironing upstairs at the time of the incident. He said: "It was a shock. I just heard a number bangs and ran out to see what had happened.
"From what it sounded like and and what I can from the damaged caused, it looks like it happened in the kitchen. It's just a good job nothing set on fire."
Crews were still on the scene late into Tuesday afternoon.
