Seven Sisters: Blast-hit homes to be 'rebuilt through kindness'

A community has promised to rebuild uninsured homes destroyed in an explosion for free "through kindness".

Jess Williams, 31, and her two sons were injured in the blast in Church Road, Seven Sisters in Neath Port Talbot, on 24 June.

The boys, aged two and five, are now recovering with family.

But close family friend Brian Morris told BBC Wales Ms Williams is likely to remain in intensive care in Morriston Hospital for "quite some time".

South Wales Police said the cause of the blast, which led to the evacuation of 14 houses, was most likely ageing LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) equipment and environmental conditions.

Work to clear the rubble where the family's house used to stand is being done for free

Two of the three affected houses were uninsured. Local independent councillor Stephen Hunt is leading a campaign to "rebuild the homes through kindness".

He said tradesmen have been eager to offer their work free of charge and money raised for a trust fund would be spent on materials.

A local company has already completed a week's work clearing the site free of charge.

Mr Hunt said: "The next stage of the project is to ascertain development of the site.

"We'll have in quantity surveyors and structural engineers to put drawings together so that both the uninsured houses can be rebuilt to the standards and high quality that we expect going forward.

"We're hoping to do this through kindness… I've been assured that nearly everybody that we need to carry out this work is on board.

"We're hoping that the people who will give us their labour for free and this trust fund that has been set up which will have £25,000 in it or more, will go some way on paying for materials and other aspects of the project if and when needed, but we're emphasising on that labour, hopefully, the kindness of those master builders and the likes will come forward to do this work."

Huw Davies is helping to clear the rubble and save the family's personal belongings

Huw Davies, who runs Ian Davies Plant Ltd, has been clearing the rubble and said he was happy to work "totally free of charge" to help the family.

"When I heard the explosion had happened, I contacted the councillor because we're a family-run business from the Dulais Valley," he said.

"We're professionals in doing demolition, so I felt that me and our team would be the best people to sift through the rubble, to get the personal belongings out and to get the houses safe."

Mr Davies said he and his team have receive "mountains of support" from the community while they've been clearing Ms Williams home, as well as demolishing two-thirds of both neighbouring properties to make them safe.

"A job like this should take two or three days, but it's taken us a week because we've gone through brick by brick and picked out nearly every photo we could find, every personal belonging, everything we can do," he said.

"Everything we've come across we've kept safe as good as we can that I could pick out with the excavator.

"We've come across everything, we've come across watches, we've come across photos, diaries, we've kept laptops whole, we've kept family albums whole, and we've done everything that we can."

'Tremendous'

Mr Morris told BBC Wales the two boys were home and "doing well", and Ms Williams was making a slow recovery in hospital.

"The signs are good, we're not out of the woods just yet, but things are getting better….it's going to be a long road to recovery. She's going be in for quite some time," he said.

He said the family was "overwhelmed" by the community attempt to rebuild the houses free of charge.

"They're just overwhelmed, they can't understand…people from far and wide have done donations and offers for their services.

"The village and community spirit has been tremendous to be honest."