Seven of the nine people feared dead or missing after an explosion that destroyed a block of flats in Jersey have been identified by police. mThey are Peter Bowler, 72, Raymond Brown, 71, Romeu de Almeida, 67, Louise de Almeida, 64, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, and Billy Marsden, 63.
Jersey police said the families of the seven had agreed to the release. It said the other missing islanders would be named at a later date.
Nine people were believed to have been in the flats when they exploded. Jersey police. He said: “He was only a white belt, he was just starting out, but he was such a lovely nature.
“He was calming and he’d get on with what he was doing but he’d have a laugh… I’d never see him lose his temper, he was so placid… One of those nice guys.
Gas supplier Island Energy confirmed the flats had not been on the island’s gas network, but added that engineers were safety testing the network and that “no issues had been detected” so far.
Jo Cox, chief executive officer, said on Monday: “I want to reassure people we believe that this was an isolated incident and not an issue with our gas network.
“We will work with emergency services and the various channels to ensure we are providing the data needed to understand exactly what happened.”
ce said four of them were still missing and at least five people were known to have died. They warned they did not expect to find survivors.
The explosion happened at the three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Pier Road, St Helier, on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.
Tony Palmer said he knew Peter Bowler through his judo club, and that the news of what had happened had “knocked him for six”.
Source: BBC
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