It was a scene of devastation that will forever live in the memories of those who survived it and dealt with the aftermath.
Because when a terrifying gas explosion wrecked a terrace of homes in a quiet Kent market town, the catastrophic sight left emergency services fearing the worst.
Twenty years ago this week, the huge blast reduced two Victorian properties in Abbey Street, Faversham, to rubble and badly damaged three more, leaving a scene more akin to the wartime Blitz.
And yet miraculously from it all emerged just 86-year-old Elsie Howland as the only significant casualty after the house she had lived in for 60 years was flattened by a gas leak in her basement.
But she did not survive unscathed, suffering severe burns to her legs after being blown into her garden and spending months in hospital recovering.
Today, there is no sign of the destruction that once beset Abbey Street, with a terrace of four smart new homes in place of those destroyed.
But at about 8am on June 6, 2004, the peace of the quiet residential road was shattered by a monumental explosion.
The events of that Sunday morning remain vivid in the memory of Griselda Mussett, who still lives in the street,
Even 20 years after the drama, the 75-year-old artist and writer can recall the scene of absolute devastation.
"My husband Andrew and I live at the top end of the street but were awoken by what sounded like a bomb going off," she said.
"Like quite a few people, we got up and dressed quickly and went down to see what had happened and were completely shocked by what we saw.
"There was rubble, smoke and fire raging through the houses.
"Cars were damaged and covered in debris and even some of the windows in the houses opposite were blown in.”
Mrs Mussett was staggered to discover no one had died in the blast, with only Mrs Howland sustaining significant injuries.
"Our first thoughts were that surely there would be some loss of life, so it was quite astonishing to later learn there had been no fatalities,” she said.
"It was a miracle that the old lady in the house which exploded was the only one to suffer serious injury.
"In particular, one little boy in a house opposite was especially lucky.
"Apparently, he had only just got out of bed to have an early morning cuddle with his mum when the blast blew the window in where he would have been sleeping.
"Obviously, like other neighbours, we just wanted to try and help.
"Many residents had to leave their homes and we had a few people back to ours for coffee, toast, to make phone calls and lend them anything they needed.
"It may have been 20 years ago, but it's unlikely that anyone who was there and witnessed it will ever forget."
Up to 80 firefighters raced to the scene after the explosion, along with paramedics and police.
Among them was Wayne Burney, from Faversham fire station, who now works for Kent Fire and Rescue in education and training.
Now aged 52, he said this week the scene that day remains one of the worst he has encountered in the job, and he still finds it miraculous no one was killed.
“When we got there, we instantly saw bricks and rubble strewn out all over the road. It was a scene you would expect to only see on the television. It seemed unreal,” he said previously.
“The house was gone and and you start to think that at that time of the day, people are bound to be inside.
“The fire was starting to spread along the row of houses so we had to start fighting it straight away.
“We began calling out for people to see if they were trapped under the rubble. You always think the worst.”
Mrs Howland, a great grandmother, was discovered trapped under a section of the collapsed roof of her home and freed by neighbours Jamie Goldthorp and Nat Victor.
She had survived the blast, but spent many weeks in intensive care and then having specialist treatment for burns at East Grinstead Hospital, followed by a long period of rehabilitation.
Speaking to KentOnline a year after her ordeal, she said: “I'm just thankful that nobody else got hurt. And I’m so grateful to everybody who has been so kind to me.
"I have flashbacks, but only once I thought 'why did it have to be me'.
Mrs Howland said she clearly remembered the explosion and then finding herself lying under rubble.
"I couldn't understand why my bathrobe was singed,“ she said.
“Someone said 'get a wet towel to put on her hair', then they pulled me out and carried me into someone's house.
"Half of Abbey Street was rubble. I could see the ambulance and I got in, then I can't remember any more."
Mrs Howland did not remember the weeks she lay unconscious in Kent and Canterbury Hospital, then the East Grinstead specialist burns unit, while her five daughters and other relatives took it in turns to watch over her by the bedside.
She also battled against a blood clot on a lung and MRSA, finishing up recovering in Faversham Cottage Hospital.
She said in 2005: “I've got a scrapbook of the newspaper cuttings and I'm finding out all about it. When I look at the rubble, I just think 'how on earth did I get out of there?"
Eventually, Mrs Howland would be rehomed in a bungalow in Crispin Close, Faversham.
About a dozen more homes were damaged in some way and 20 families had to leave the street while a huge clear-up and investigation into the explosion began.
Arthur Godden, 58, of Victoria Place, took part in the operation as part of his job as a site agent for Kent Highways.
“The emergency services were on site and had formed an exclusion zone keeping everyone out, but you could clearly see the devastation caused by the explosion,” he said.
“We had a strange request to look out for a pair of socks, which we thought was a wind-up when you saw the task ahead of us.
“It turned out that Elsie had put some savings inside a sock. We never found them but the lads in our company had a whip-round and sent it to the mayor’s Abbey Street fund.”
“It is not something I have had to deal with before and hopefully never again.”
The community rallied around to support those who had been affected by the blast and a fundraising appeal was set up.
The then Mayor of Faversham, the late Cindy Davis, also joined in the effort to support those affected.
“There has never been a disaster of this kind in the town and it is very lucky that anyone came out alive,” she said at the time.
“Abbey Street residents are very much like their own village inside Faversham and they all helped out and raised around £3,000.
“I did what I could as mayor to help them with raising the money.”
Sarah Griffith, of the Kent Fire and Rescue Investigation Unit, revealed the cause of the blast was the house's gas main pipes being routed via rotten and woodworm-ridden timber ceiling joists in the basement.
Her report concluded: "A detailed examination of the pipework identified an old joint just beyond the meter as the only viable point of gas release.
“Deteriorating structural timberwork in or around the basement could provide a mechanism by which the joint could have been progressively weakened to failure.
“In my view, ignition of the resulting gas/air mixture had most probably occurred at ground floor level by either a naked flame or electrical spark, for example from a switch or live appliance."
In this case, it was believed that Mrs Howland simply turning on her bathroom light had triggered the explosion.
The worst damaged homes were eventually completely demolished and the land was cleared by building company Ringway and the site sold for redevelopment at auction in September 2006.
Ten years ago, residents still vividly recalled the day of the explosion.
Jane Pearce, of Gordon Square, said: “It was an unbelievable moment in time. I was the only one awake in our household back then.
“I thought an aircraft had gone through a roof. We went outside and spoke to a paperboy who pointed me to the direction that it came from. Thank heavens no one was killed.”
Margaret Abram, of Waterside Close, said: “I thought my gas boiler had exploded and I rushed upstairs to find it in one piece. We went outside and could see smoke across the creek.
“We walked to Abbey Street where we saw dramatic scenes of the firefighters pulling tiles of the rooftops in the terrace and smoke billowing out from roof spaces.
“The street was full of rubble and we thought many people must have died. It was one of the most dramatic sights I have ever seen.”
