Families flee as gas leak ignites

FAMILIES were evacuated from their Werneth homes on Saturday afternoon after a gas leak caught fire.

Chadderton fire-fighters were called to an end terrace house in Lee Street, Primrose Bank, at 2.37pm to extinguish what was originally thought to be a fire involving the external electric supply of the house.

On arrival, the occupier had extinguished the fire but officers found a main gas pipeline had ruptured and an electric cable passing near to the gas supply re-ignited the fire while they were there.

Crews evacuated five homes and closed the street while the National Grid was called to isolate the gas supply to the house but were allowed to return to their homes at 5pm.

Electricity North-West was also called to dig down and isolate the electricity supply. Work to repair the problem continued yesterday.

Watch commander Peter Marshall, from Chadderton Fire Station, said crews had stayed at the scene until 6.30pm.

He said: “It could have been a lot worse .

“Originally we thought it was a fire above the ground that had ruptured the gas pipeline.

“We were quite lucky it did ignite because initially we just had gas escaping and no fire.”