Landlady Dies In Gas Explosion Just Minutes After Reporting Leak To Supplier

A 79-year-old great-grandmother reportedly died in a house explosion in June 2022, believed to have been caused by an old copper gas pipe joint, an inquest heard Monday.

Retired pub landlady Doreen Mace, originally from Erdington, Birmingham, died at a house owned by her partner, David Murphy, in Dulwich Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham, on June 26, 2022. She died due to a blast that caused what the coroner described as a "Hollywood film-esque level of destruction."

The inquest's 11-member jury was shown a picture of a "gas pipe separation under (the) floor of (the) living room" — suspected to be the main cause of the explosion, Daily Mail reported.

Murphy reportedly called the U.K. gas distribution network Cadent at 8:22 p.m. the same day the explosion occurred, reporting that he could smell "what he thought was gas," his hob was also no longer working and the meter was "making a noise."

Murphy was told by a call handler "not to use any source of ignition, and to ventilate the house" and that an engineer would arrive "within the hour," the coroner said.

However, less than 15 minutes after the call ended, the house exploded. Several 999 calls were made by their neighbors – the first at 8:38 p.m., describing a "huge bang" and saying 129 Dulwich Road had been "flattened" and was "completely missing."

The body of Mace was later recovered under 3 feet (1 meter) of rubble from the lounge at the front of the property. Meanwhile, Murphy survived but suffered "relatively significant injuries," having earlier been rescued from the rubble of the kitchen, where he had been reportedly protected by a fridge, the BBC reported. He was carried using a mattress by the members of the public.

Opening the hearing, Birmingham and Solihull Area Coroner James Bennett told the inquest, "Sadly, we reach a point where natural gas is escaping into the property. It eventually ignites, causing the explosion."

West Midlands Police Detective Inspector Ranj Sangha, in evidence, confirmed that multi-agency investigators agreed "the explosion was caused by natural gas escaping from a pipe underneath the lounge floor."

The court also heard that the floorboards in the bay area of the lounge were "bowing" because some of the joists were "rotting," according to a statement given to the police by Murphy's son.

The ex-Birmingham City Council house was nearly 100 years old, with the inquest hearing that the boiler was not working at the time of the explosion.

Murphy was reportedly selling the property, which had become privately owned in 1981 under a previous occupant, and had accepted an offer. Estate agent particulars noted the problem with the floor, accompanied by pictures, and the lack of a working boiler.

Sangha said police contacted Gas Safe, whose records only dated back to 2009, and Birmingham Council, but officers were told that "no one holds records that far back."

After examining other proof, Bennett said the "best estimate" was that the pipe "had been there at least 50 years, but cannot exclude the possibility it was original pipework when the house was built in or before 1928."

He told jurors that "there was a very significant explosion, and the reality is the force of the explosion completely destroyed the house" and caused damage to neighboring properties.

The coroner said that "many years ago - potentially decades," whoever installed the gas pipe had used a type of fitting that needed "soldering" but had not done so.

"So, at that joint, it was never soldered or welded and, sadly, we reach a point where natural gas is escaping into the property. It eventually ignites, causing the explosion. It appears Doreen, sadly, was in the lounge at the point of the explosion."