Picture by Chronicle reader Anthony Finnegan
Civic leaders say Shrewsbury will rise from the ashes of the massive explosion which left 12 people in hospital and caused panic and devastation in the town centre.
They praised the emergency services, business people and residents for uniting in the face of disaster.
And they called for early action to restore town centre trade and to redevelop the blast site.
The ear-splitting explosion, thought to have been caused by a gas leak, rocked Shrewsbury at 11.25 am on Sunday. It destroyed a former gym supply shop with a flat above at the corner of Smithfield Road and Bridge Street, near Welsh Bridge.
Twelve people were taken to hospital, and five of them remain seriously ill with burns, fractures and other injuries.
Nineteen-year-old friends Sam Devine-Turner and Sarah Pearse, are critical but stable in Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham. Miss Pearse’s boyfriend Scott Godbold, 23, and their friend Annie Davies, 19, are also at Selly Oak, where they are stable. All four were in the flat when the blast erupted. Actor Kiley McDonnell, who was appearing as Jovial Jake in the Peter Pan pantomime at Theatre Severn, is in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital with spinal injuries.
Mr Kawczynski said: “Mercifully, the explosion did not happen on a Saturday or the consequences could have been even worse. My sympathies go out to the victims.
“The explosion has left a gaping hole in the town centre. It is an important site and we need to look carefully about how it is redeveloped.”
Superintendent Martin Whitelegg, of Shrewsbury police, said every effort was being made to return the town centre to normal as quickly as possible while allowing the Health and Safety Executive to continue its investigations.
For exclusive pictures of the scene of the explosion click here
For the full story read this week’s Shrewsbury Chronicle, on sale from Thursday January 7.
