Christmas Eve house fire sees 40 homes evacuated
Scores of people had an alarming start to Christmas as 40 homes were evacuated due to a house fire.
Flames ripped through a wooden extension to the end of a terrace house, rupturing a gas pipe in Bolton Way, Bloxwich, just minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve.
The blaze is believed to have been started by a carelessly discarded cigarette.
The heat was so great that it melted plastic window frames and burst double-glazed glass on the first floor of the property after being spotted by a young man who lived there.
Firefighters from Bloxwich and Walsall stations were at the scene in just four-and-a-half minutes and set up a 50-metre exclusion zone that encompassed homes in both Bolton Way and neighbouring Evesham Crescent, after realising there was a potentially-lethal gas leak.
Watch Commander David Foley, from Bloxwich station, explained: "The extension was made of wood, bone dry and had the heating on so the fire quickly took hold.
"It was spreading up the side of the house and had broken the double glazing on the first-floor landing when we got there.
"Then we discovered that the flames had burnt through the incoming gas supply to the house leaving us with an open gas mains and a really strong smell. It was potentially quite a volatile situation.
"We set up an outer cordon and sent firefighters to knock on the doors of the 40 homes that were within it, telling everybody to evacuate behind the tape. They were quite happy drinking and making merry. It was a quite bizarre scene."
An urgent call was made to the gas board who fortunately had an engineer in the area. He was on the scene within minutes and quickly installed a temporary repair to the pipe.
The near 60 people forced out of their homes were able to return within half an hour.
Four people lived at the house where the fire started and managed to get out without injury.
They also had the good sense to close internal doors, preventing the flames from spreading further.
Watch Commander Foley said: "The oldest son had been in the extension and had been smoking. It looks like a cigarette could have been carelessly discarded because he went out to prepare some food and found the fire had started when he returned.
"He tried to put it out without success and then sensibly got out of the property with the rest of his family."
Sara Allman, 41, and her 53-year-old husband were among those evacuated.
Mrs Allman said: "Everybody got out ok.
"Eleven houses were evacuated on our street. We could smell the gas."
Walsall Housing Group were called to make the property safe while the family spent the remainder of the night with relatives who live nearby.
