Faulty pipe sparked deadly gas blast that killed gran as family praise rescuers
The family of a 79-year-old great-grandmother killed in a house blast triggered by a "decades-old" faulty copper gas pipe have praised "brave" rescuers who tried to save her.
An inquest jury concluded on Tuesday that the death of retired pub landlady Doreen Mace, originally from Birmingham, was accidental.
She died at a house owned by her partner, David Murphy, in Dulwich Road, Kingstanding on June 26 last year, in a blast that caused what the coroner described as a "Hollywood film-esque level of destruction".
The inquest's 11-member jury was shown an image of a "gas pipe separation under (the) floor of (the) living room", which was at the root of the explosion.
It also emerged Mr Murphy had rung UK gas distribution network Cadent at 8.22pm that Sunday, reporting he could smell "what he thought was gas", his hob was no longer working, and the meter was "making a noise".
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The blast was triggered by a 'decades-old' faulty copper gas pipe (PA)He was told by a call handler "not to use any source of ignition, and to ventilate the house", and that an engineer would arrive "within the hour", the coroner said.
Less than 15 minutes after the call ended, the house exploded.
Numerous 999 calls were made by neighbours, who described a "huge bang" and said 129 Dulwich Road had been "flattened" and was "completely missing".
The blast was so violent that it sent roof tiles through the windows of a leisure centre 114ft away.
The body of Ms Mace was later recovered under 3ft of rubble from the lounge.
Her partner, Mr Murphy - though suffering "relatively significant injuries" – survived.
Doreen's family thanked rescuers who risked their own safety (Twitter/@MOLLY539011321 / SWNS)He was rescued from the rubble of the kitchen - where he had been shielded by a fridge – by members of the public who carried him away using a mattress.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Ms Mace's great grandchild Bradley O'Brien paid tribute, calling her a woman "never scared to speak her mind", who "dedicated her whole life to her family".
He also praised "very brave" members of the public and neighbours who rushed to dig Mr Murphy out of the rubble, and had tried to find and save Ms Mace before flames beat them back.
To those rescuers, Mr O'Brien said: "Thank you.
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"My heart goes out to you, and the world needs more people like that, actually willing to sacrifice their life for someone else.”
Mr O'Brien also called for gas firms to look again at the standard advice transcript read to residents who call reporting the smell of gas, which does not automatically urge them to leave a property.
David Murphy, who owned the property, was rescued from the blast (SWNS)"I think going forward I want my nan's death to change these transcripts and the advice given to people in these situations," he said.
Earlier the coroner said "many years ago - potentially decades", whomever had installed the gas pipe had used a type of fitting which needed "soldering", but had not done so.
Jurors, who delivered their conclusions after deliberating for just under two hours on Tuesday, found Ms Mace's cause of death was from "consequences of an explosion that caused a house to collapse".
The ex-Birmingham City Council house was nearly 100 years old, with the home - privately owned in 1981 - about to be sold.
Police tried to trace a history of gas works at the house, but were told "no-one holds records that far back".
Mr Bennett said the "best estimate" was that the pipe "had been there at least 50 years".
The inquest later heard from Steve Critchlow, specialist Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, who said the pipework was probably post-Second World War, dating to the 1950s or 1960s.
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