Three terraced houses destroyed in a huge gas explosion are to be rebuilt ‘like-for-like’. The homes, on Nelson Street in the Fishpool area of Bury were at the centre of a major blast at around 11am on February 28, 2024.
The explosion and subsequent fire led to a massive response by emergency services. A woman in her 70s was taken to hospital with injuries. A huge cordon put in place and a number of nearby homes and a school were evacuated.
The front of one house involved was blown out by the blast, its windows blown out and most of the roof collapsed. The affected homes, an end terrace house and the two adjacent properties, were later largely demolished.
Plans submitted by developers Gateley Smithers Purslow to rebuild the homes have been approved this week by Bury Council. A planning officer report for No 106, Nelson Street, said: “The site comprises a terrace of 11 dwellings, which contain two or three bedrooms and are constructed from red brick with a slate roof.
“Three of the properties at the end of the row were damaged by an explosion in 2024. “Following the explosion, the site was cleared and a hoarding erected around the site.”
No objections were made to the three houses being rebuilt. The new homes will have no off-street parking, but the council said there was none provided before and so it would not result in a worse situation.
A design and access statement in support of the application said: “The proposal seeks to reinstate the building back to its pre-destruction state in a like-for-like manner in terms of appearance, style, form, and size.
“The appearance of the proposed building has been designed to match the original pre-destruction building and to maintain the street scene of Nelson Street.”
At the time, the terrifying blast left residents fearing for their lives. One man said he thought his family were ‘going to die’, as residents described heroic locals trying to rescue the woman from the burning house amid the disastrous scenes.
Mushtaq Anwar, who was at home with his wife, his daughter, 21, and son, 17, at the time described the explosion as being ‘like an earthquake’.
He said: “All of the house was shaking and moving up and down.”
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