The gas explosion at Willows Rd. 1973

I lived there at the time and my mates were in the damaged houses. All were safe but badly shaken. These were the first shots, easily beating the papers! -Malcolm Westbrook

It was about 7 a.m. on the 4th of January 1971 (I was 11 years old) and I was still half asleep when I heard and felt a loud noise. I thought I was dreaming but I opened my eyes and could see the still dark sky. My bedroom was upstairs at the front of the house and the front wall had collapsed onto the lawn, I walked down the rubble as if it was a staircase and collapsed with shock. A neighbour carried me to another house nearby which had its door glass blown out from the force of the explosion (many doors and windows for some distance were damaged).

My father received first degree burns and was treated at Cosford Hospital. My mother and sister were pulled out of my parents' bedroom, which was on fire, by firemen who were on the scene very quickly as there was still a fire station in Oakengates.

It had been caused by the fracture of the gas main serving Newport (at the time we were all electric!). Ours and neighbouring houses had been illegaly built on top of it. The weight of the houses and the hard ground frost had caused the damage to the pipe. The gas had seeped out and my father had inadvertantly caused it to ignite by the spark from an electric kettle as he was making a cup of tea. At that time, new town gas had not long come in and gave off no smell, it was incidents like this that forced the Gas Board to add an artificial smell and this practice still occurs.

We later found out that a workman on his way to Sankey's had been going along a nearby path and had felt the pressure of the gas even though it had no smell and later had to be treated for minor burns as he put out a cigarette in his hands. He ran to the police station at the bottom of Station Hill and a policeman went straight to Willows Road but had only just got out of his car when the houses went up (he was later decorated for bravery). There were two large and many minor explosions and it was a little while before the fire brigade declared the site safe. I also remember that there were looters on site for some time afterwards and we were told that if anyone injured themselves we were liable!

There was due to be a test case in the courts to decide who was liable for the cause of the explosion but the builder died before this could happen. He had maintained that the plans from the County Council showed the gas pipe in a different location.

Andy Nock, July 2007