Gas blast rocks homes, kills three dogs

A COUPLE have told how Shaw residents feared a repeat of the Buckley Street gas explosion after a blast shook local homes and destroyed a dog kennel.

Hazel Gloster and husband Chris described a feeling of panic among Shaw people after a gas explosion destroyed a kennel, killing three dogs, and shook homes near Knowl Road, off Mark Lane.

They came to the rescue of three horses kept in a pen next to the kennel, which was destroyed by the blast on Thursday night. The couple have been looking after the horses over the weekend.

Although no people were killed or injured in Thursday night’s explosion, the blast shocked local residents and brought back memories of Shaw’s Buckley Street explosion in 2012 that claimed the life of two-year-old Jamie Heaton. Firefighters believe Thursday night’s explosion was caused when an oven inside the shed was left on, causing a gas cannister to explode with a loud bang.

Hazel Gloster, a former Shaw and Crompton parish councillor, who lives at nearby Fullwood House, led the horses to safety from the pen next to the burning shed.

She said: “I didn’t think when it happened, I was just concerned that the horses would be panicked.

“They are flight animals and when they are panicked they will run, I was frightened there may be more dangers, I have horses myself but these I didn’t know and you don’t know what they are going to do.

“If they panic you will never catch them again and they can seriously injure someone or themselves.

“At first we thought a plane had crashed the explosion was so loud it shook the house, I was panicked but I was so glad that it wasn’t a windy night, it doesn’t take much for something to get blown does it.

“I don’t think that I was particularly brave I was just stupid, I was still shaking the following drive into work the next morning.”

Her husband, Councillor Chris Gloster, said: “I was at the Oldham Council election count on Thursday night and received a telephone call saying there had been a massive explosion that had rocked houses.

“Hazel said our house shook - it absolutely rocked.

“She thought an aircraft had crashed into it. Hazel then rang me and a panic started.

“Everybody thought it was something like the Buckley Street explosion. I started receiving texts and calls from people worrying about what was going on.”

Mrs Gloster rescued two large horses and one smaller horse from a pen next the burning kennel, and took them to a paddock.