A quiet York street was rocked by an explosion this afternoon (Wednesday).
Police cordoned off Crossfield Crescent in Fulford as fire crews and paramedics deal with the incident.
Homes in the street were evacuated as the entire horseshoe-shaped street was taped off.
Residents waited patiently behind the tape for the all clear. It came shortly after 4pm when the cordon was lifted.
However, the fire service are urging that no one uses a naked flame in the vicinity this evening.
Emergency crews were alerted to the incident at about midday.
Hero neighbour Lewis Abley, who lives on Fordlands Road right next to the incident, told YorkMix what happened.
“I was in my kitchen and I heard an explosion. I’ve run upstairs into the bedroom to have a look over the fences, and you could just sort of ‘hear’ the heat – I thought someone had gone through a gas main.
“So I’ve run back outside, got on top of my garage, looked over into the back. You could just see the rippling heat and hear it.
“A bloke was standing away from this ripple of heat. One side, all of his clothes had burnt off.
“So I shouted, ‘are you OK?’ and then ran round, jumped over the fence, ran into the garden.
“He’d tried to douse down everything because it was within like a metre or two away from the fence, the hedge, those conifers there, and his shed.
“What he’d actually done is he’d drilled into a five-foot-high gas cylinder that was full to the brim of gas, and it had flame-throwered him, and then fallen to the floor and was projecting flames towards everything in the garden.
“So I got the hose off him, hosed everything around it, and then saw to him as his wife rung an ambulance and the fire brigade.
“We got him in the sink and put a chair behind him because he was in shock. He’s taken it all the skin off one side of his arm.”
Lewis said there had been no damage to nearby properties, “but everything around it is singed”.
He added: “Luckily, he started hosing it, and when I went round, he started seeing to himself. So I continued hosing this stuff down, then ran in to make sure he was all right.”
Paramedics treated the casualty at the scene. He’s now been taken to hospital.
North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service group manager Andy Creasey was at the scene.
He told YorkMix: “We were mobilised to the reports of an acetylene cylinder that had been damaged, which had actually caused some significant burns to the to the occupier of the property.
“Acetylene’s got a very high flammable range and can be quite a dangerous cylinder.
“So what we’ve had to do was evacuate the immediate vicinity, just as a precautionary measure, and then we’ve monitored the cylinder.
“We use what we call a wetting test, where we submerge the cylinder in water, and then after a certain set period of time, we’ll check to see if that cylinder is heating up.
“Fortunately, the cylinder has stayed at an ambient temperature for the majority of the time.”
As gas was still escaping from the cylinder, the cordon stayed in place for about four hours.
After the cordon was lifted, Mr Creasey said: “At the moment it’s still gassing off, but it’s gassing off in a water bath.
“We’ve got one crew that are going to monitor that to the point where it stops gassing off. We’ve got in contact with the cylinder manufacturer. They’re going to come and remove that probably tomorrow morning when it’s safe to do so.”
He said people should not use naked flames in the area for the moment.
“It’s just a precaution, because there’s a small amount of acetylene coming off from the cylinder that’s being vented in the back garden.
“We just don’t want to make a situation any worse.
“I’m comfortable that people can go back to the home addresses safely. But what we don’t want is anybody within that immediate vicinity with a cigarette or anything because there’s just no point in adding to the risk.”
He said there was no property damage caused during the incident.
