Incredible photos show how gas blast ripped walls off farmhouse - and the owner only survived because she was out walking her dogs

A woman amazingly survived a huge gas explosion that ripped through her farmhouse - because she was out walking her dogs at the time.

Susan House and her pets cheated death by going for a stroll shortly before the detached property exploded yesterday afternoon, leaving a scene of destruction.

Fire crews were called after a tremendous blast was heard, blowing the back wall and windows out and causing substantial damage to the roof.

A bath tub can be seen teetering over the edge of what was once the upstairs bathroom after the explosion, which miraculously injured no one.

The explosion is believed to have happened in the kitchen of the poultry farm - called Bleak House - which had a propane-fed gas supply.

Her father George House, 86, has owned the home for more than half a century and said his daughter was too distraught to talk about the blast.

He said: 'I have had the house for 53 years and it looks like it will have to be flattened. Due to it being a bank holiday there is nothing we can do with it at the moment.

'My daughter lives in the house and she was out walking the dogs at the time. She lives there alone and it was really lucky that she wasn't there.

'She is too upset to talk about it.'  

Police and fire crews have launched an investigation into the explosion, which happened in Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire, but are not treating it as suspicious.

Kevin Hinson was in his garden half a mile away when he heard what he described as a 'big bang', but mistook it for a bomb going off.

'It was a massive explosion and it's lucky that the owners were out at the time,' he said.

'It was a sunny day and I was in the garden when I heard an explosion. To be honest I didn't think much of it at the time as we have a bombing range nearby (RAF Donna Nook).

'I was in the garden later with my daughter when we saw an air ambulance and could hear sirens. We jumped in the car and headed down to see what had happened. We got just round the corner but they were cordoning off all the traffic.

'There's been some serious structural damage to the house. It was a massive explosion. I'm just thankful nobody was hurt.'

Wendy Matkin, who lives a couple of hundred yards away from the destroyed farmhouse, said: 'I felt the whole house shake. At first I thought it was a jet plane flying overhead breaking the sound barrier.

'My dog has gone deaf and she felt and heard it so that shows you how loud it was.

'I knew it was something big when I heard the sirens and the helicopter but I didn't realise what had actually happened until my boyfriend heard it on the news.' 

Inspector Simon Elmes of Lincolnshire Police said: 'The fire is out and now an investigation is being carried out to find out what happened to cause the explosion.'

A spokesman for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service said the gas leak originated in the kitchen. Firefighters were able to put out a small fire without entering the home in case of any collapse.

Fire service group manager Sean King said if the owners of the property were in at the time ‘it could have been a very different story’.

‘It was a significant explosion caused, we think, by some kind of gas leak but we haven’t been able to determine the exact cause yet due to the extensive damage,’ he said.

‘Luckily they’d [owners] gone for a walk and if they’d been in the house at the time it could have been a very different story.’