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❚❙ Nothing remains of houses destroyed in explosion

CIT Y
READY TO
RING THE
CHANGES

PICTURE: CHRIS GORDON

TRIBUTE: Flowers and
messages at the scene of

MATCH
an explosion in Birstall

GAS BLAST
BY JACOB JARVIS REPORTS
Families, including pensioners, who left their houses
after a fatal gas explosion will not be able to return REDS v
CIT Y
home until the summer.

FAMILIES
Debris from the blast, sparked by a cooker generator
switch following a gas pipe leak, remains strewn
around Allington Drive, in Birstall.
The explosion, on December 11, claimed the life of
79-year-old Janet Jasper when it ripped through her
and husband John’s home.
PICTURE: SWNS PAGES 44–48

‘CAN’T GO TIGERS
HORROR
SHOW
HOME FOR Now, only a few possessions and flowers in tribute to
Mrs Jasper remain on the patch of land where the house
was.

MONTHS’
At least nine houses in Allington Drive have been tem-
porarily abandoned since the explosion.
Three bungalows in Keswick Drive, behind the blast
site, are also vacant because of damage.
Julian Howe lives opposite the Jaspers’ home, which
was next to the house where the explosion originated,
with his wife and daughter. He said: “We have rented
PAGES 41–43
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