A young family were today lucky to be alive after a massive explosion devastated their home.
It sent glass from the windows flying across the road in Merrivale, Benfleet, and left the back of the house gaping open.
Miraculously, the semi-detached house next door - where pensioners Ron and Phyllis Allain were getting ready for bed - remained virtually untouched, except for one cracked window.
The family who lived in the privately rented house - a young mum and her sons, aged eight and five, were not in.
A Canvey fire spokesman said: "They were very, very lucky because if they had been inside, the explosion and the intense heat would have killed them in seconds."
Fire investigators believe the blast at the house was caused by a gas explosion.
Neighbour Joanne Bolton, 25, said: "There were flames shooting up everywhere and glass flying across the road, like something out of a film."
Her husband Andrew, 32, a builder, heard the bang and ran across the road to check nobody was inside.
He said: "My biggest fear was the children were in there asleep and I was panicking.
"It was quite upsetting because we have kids of our own and we were fearing the worst."
Published Monday, June 30, 2003
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