Wolverhampton gas explosion: Clean up starts at Penn Road blast house
Work has begun to clear up the remains of a Wolverhampton home nearly two months after it was destroyed by a gas explosion.
Pensioner Wendy Ayoub miraculously survived the blast at her Penn Road house in December last year after her washing machine fell on top of her, shielding her from debris.
Until this week the wreckage remained untouched with boarding put up at the front of the property, obscuring the mound of rubble from view.
But on Monday diggers moved onto the site and the clear-up has now begun.
Bosses at City Demolition – the firm brought in to carry out the work – said it will be five to six weeks before the debris is cleared.
Managing directer Mark Doyle said: "We have been contracted to do certain investigations at the site and will be working alongside the loss adjuster and National Grid.
"We will try and reclaim some of the former occupant's valuables and then the job will be to clear the site and process all of the materials to get it back to as it was before any building work can start."
Emergency teams found Mrs Ayoub after they heard her calling out for help and pulled her from the rubble – with only a broken ankle, cuts and bruises.
Mrs Ayoub, whose husband Fouzi died tragically in a car accident in Mali in 2000, later joked that her washing machine saved her life. The cause for the blast is yet to be fully established. Investigations were put on hold until the clean-up began.
Earlier this month it emerged raiders had twice burgled a neighbouring home following the explosion. Debris had smashed through the wall and inside Daljit Uppal's house.
Mr Uppal, aged 48, was holidaying in India when he saw news of the blast online. "I almost had a panic attack," said Mr Uppal. "I couldn't believe it."
The explosion caused extensive damage to the left side of Mr Uppal's family home, destroying his dining room and part of his newly-renovated kitchen.
"We totally redecorated the house last June," he said. "All the furniture was brand new. The kitchen had underfloor heating, we had new carpets and I had just finished re-modelling the bathrooms."
