Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fortunate Moray family could have lost house in gas explosion

Fire crews warned the damage could have spread to 200 metres if the gas tanks had exploded.
Fire crews warned the damage could have spread to 200 metres if the gas tanks had exploded.

Firefighters battling a blaze, which broke out after a gas canister started to leak, said they were just minutes away from it developing into an explosion which could have devastated everything within 200 yards.

Paul and Rebecca Kendrick were having a batch of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) delivered to their Rothes home yesterday when it started to pour out onto the ground.

The substance quickly caught light and flames began to engulf the canisters of gas – which luckily remained intact.

Two LPG delivery men fled from the scene on the A941 Elgin road to escape a cloud of vapour and alerted the Kendricks just moments before a loud blast sent cracks up the wall of the house.

Last night the couple said they felt they had a lucky escape as the quick actions of the emergency services meant the blaze was stopped from developing further.

The force of the explosion also destroyed the couple’s greenhouse and wall as flames spread across their driveway.

And neighbours explained they feared the worst after hearing the bang that “shook the village”.

Mr Kendrick said: “Fortunately, nobody was hurt. It could have been worse though. If one of that tanks had exploded then it would have taken the gable-end of the building off and caused serious injury.

“There was obviously still a lot of force. It blew the glass in the windows and cracked the bays.

“It’s absolutely devastating. It’s just very fortunate that nobody was caught in the blast.”

As delivery men warned Mr Kendrick’s wife, Rebecca, about the unfolding emergency in her front garden, she hastily shut the door just seconds before the gas ignited.

Last night, recovery crews lifted away the fire-damaged delivery truck, which was carrying two further tanks as well as the old and replacement one for the home.

Police closed the A941 between Rothes and Fogwatt shortly before 9am while two fire engines were at the scene to control the flames.

Neighbours reported hearing a loud bang followed by several smaller explosions yesterday morning.

Ian Innes, who lives on nearby North Street, said: “We had no idea what it was. The vibration shook everything in the house.

“From the noise, we actually thought it was worse than what it was. These things happen so suddenly, nobody ever expects them to happen.”

Another neighbour added: “It shook the village but these kind of things happen. The important thing was it was a safe accident and nobody got hurt.”

Incident commander, watch manager Stephen Laing, explained that crews immediately became aware there had been a “substantial explosion”.

Water was sprayed over the gas tanks to cool them down before the flames caused them to burst.

Mr Laing said: “It emerged that, during the process of decanting LPG from an old gas tank into a replacement one, a valve had somehow come loose.

“The operatives did the right thing by getting out of the vapour cloud before the explosion, which caused substantial damage.

“The fire was contained to about a 20-metre radius. If one of the tanks exploded, then you could have been looking at a 100 to 200-metre radius. It’s very fortunate but you make your own luck – we got here very quickly and cooled them down.”

A fire spokeswoman added: “An ambulance was called. One of the workmen was treated for shock.”