Lancashire Fire said in a tweet units were called to a row of terraced houses on Mallowdale Avenue in the early hours of Sunday and that firefighters are searching a collapsed property.
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“Tragically a young child has been killed as a consequence of what has happened and the thoughts of myself and all the emergency services are with the family at what is a distressing time."
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Ben Norman, the Assistant Chief Fire Officer of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, said that fire crews remained at the scene and an investigation into the cause of the blast would be carried out “slowly and methodically”.
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Lancaster City Council said that Salt Ayre Leisure Centre, in nearby Morecambe, was open as an evacuation centre for any residents who had been affected by the incident.
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Resident Susan Faulkner, 74, who lives further down Mallowdale Avenue, said the blast was “like a bomb going off” and that she was still “shaken” by the incident.
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“I woke up with this huge bang and I thought someone was breaking into my house,” she told the PA news agency.
