Major gas explosion devastates residential street

Fire crews at the house in Riddings, near Alfreton where two people died in a fierce house fire A neighbour is understood to have been aided by an off-duty fireman and an off-duty policeman in an initial attempt to help the couple.

“It has now been deemed safe to enter and nothing immediately appears to suggest anything suspicious, but this is just the early stages”, Mr Pont continued.

The force’s Ch Insp Steve Pont added: “This is an bad tragedy”.

There may be people inside the property in Valley View Road, following a report of a house fire at around 7.30am, but this has yet to be confirmed. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the two people who have lost their lives”.

“We believe that it’s the husband and wife that live at the property but we’ve not been able to formally identify them at this time”.

Emergency services are searching for possible victims of a house fire in Derbyshire after a blaze tore through the residential property.

Firefighters and an ambulance crew were called to the “major incident” – which is believed to be a gas explosion – on Valley View Road, in Riddings, Derbyshire at around 7.33am this morning.

Firefighters were earlier told they would have to wait for structural engineers to assess the damaged building before it would be safe to enter, the BBC reported.

‘We will be conducting a joint investigation with the police to determine the cause of the fire.

“We’ve got a hard job ahead of us now but while we are doing that we are all thinking about the families”.

A number of ambulances were also sent to the scene.

Local resident Mark Robins, 32, of nearby Shawcroft Avenue, was woken up by the bang this morning.

‘The house was in flames, with a lot of rubble everywhere, so I rang the fire brigade’.