An explosion demolished a house and seriously damaged seven others in Drogheda, Co Louth, yesterday.
Investigators believe a build-up of gas probably caused the explosion, which blew the roof off a house in Cherrybrook Estate. There were 10 casualties, six adults and four children. They had minor injuries and were also suffering from shock.
The Drogheda fire service said it was fortunate the occupants of the house were on holiday and their teenage son, who had remained at home, was out at the time.
An aluminium window frame and its curtains lay in the garden of a house across the road. The front windows in five facing houses were blown in.
The alarm was raised at 1.40 p.m..
Mr Joe Smith, incident officer with the North Eastern Health Board's Ambulance Control Centre, said: "I think we were extremely lucky there were not more serious injuries to the casualties or that people were killed.
"If it had happened two or three hours later there would probably have been children out playing, and there could have been even worse devastation than we have here." Gardai evacuated more than 100 residents in the estate.
There was no natural gas supply to the house, but there were two large gas cylinders at the rear of it.