‘The house blew up in seconds’: how a gas blast affected one Welsh family

Jessica Williams (second right) pictured with her partner Mike David, and their sons, Ruben David (left) and Elliot David, who were also seriously injured in the blast. Photograph: Gayle Marsh/Media Wales

There was a smell of gas when Jess Williams, a nursery school worker from south Wales, went into her kitchen on a warm June day in 2020. It wasn’t overpowering, until she reached for the oven.

“I touched the dial and it instantly exploded,” she told the Guardian. “It just blew the whole house up in seconds. It was just rubble.”