A mum whose home was destroyed in an explosion today told of her brush with death.

Joanne Thorpe had been out celebrating a friend's birthday but as she made her way back to her home in Merrivale, Benfleet, she saw fire engines in her street.

Demolished - what was left of the house following the gas blast has now been pulled down Picture: TERENCE BUNCH

But it took her a while to realise it was her own home that was ablaze.

The mother-of-two told of her ordeal as a demolition squad was called in by Castle Point Council to flatten the property after a safety inspection deemed it was unsafe.

Miss Thorpe said: "As I stood at the top of Merrivale I saw it was my house on fire. I was hysterical and I felt completely confused.

"My kids were staying with their father, Mark Willis, and their Nan and Grandad in Hullbridge so they were not in the house and I had been out at the Benfleet Tavern because it was a friend's birthday.

"If any of us had been in the house we would not have survived."

The force of the explosion at 11.30pm on Saturday caused glass from the windows to fly across the road and left the back of the house gaping open.

Joanne and her children Billy, five, and Jake, eight, have been left homeless. The council has offered them a place at the Palace Hotel in Southend.

Fire officers believe the explosion was caused by a gas leak under the floorboards.

Published Tuesday, July 1, 2003

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