Birmingham house explosion: Mother, 79, killed in gas blast as partner fights for life ‘had heart of gold’

Doreen Rees-Bibb, 79, was caught up in the blast along with her partner David Murphy

Tributes have been paid to a mother with a “heart of pure gold” killed in a house explosion in Birmingham.

Doreen Rees-Bibb, 79, was caught up in the blast on Sunday evening, along with her partner David Murphy who owns the house in Kingstanding.

Mr Murphy was pulled from the wreckage by neighbours and is in hospital in a “lift-threatening” condition.

A family member paid tribute to Doreen, describing her as “the life and soul of the party”.

Doreen Rees-Bibb was described as an ‘angel’ by friends (Facebook)

They told The Sun: “She was full of warmth and love, and she had a heart of pure gold. We are all distraught.”

“She was almost 80 but she was still full of life. She was really happy with Dave. We don’t know what’s happened, if there was a gas leak or some kind of fault. We are just waiting for answers,” they said.

West Midlands Fire Service said it could take a number of days before investigators establish the exact cause of the gas explosion (Richard Vernalls/PA)

David Murphy’s niece Terri Ann Noble said he is a “lovely man” who will “do anything for anybody”.

“His children Dean and Kate will be going through hell right now, they absolutely adore him, they love him to bits,” she said.

The scene after an explosion destroyed a house in Birmingham (Getty Images)

One friend of Doreen’s paid tribute to her on social media, calling her “an angel”.

Alex Lindsey Stanley wrote on Facebook: “Please don’t tell me this is true RIP beautiful, such an angel. Party hard up there love you.”

A neighbour who helped rescue David from the ruined house had told The Independent of his guilt at being unable to save Doreen.

Sidney Pritchett said that he had just put his two young children to bed on Sunday evening when he heard a massive bang and felt his house shake.

Sidney Pritchett helped rescue his neighbour after the blast (Sidney Pritchett)

He shot out of his front door, heard someone shouting for help from the back of the property and rushed to help.

He said: “We ran straight down the side of the house that was just rubble, we had to kick a fence down and climb through the hedge – there were about 10 to 14 of us in there.

“The back garden was just a massive pile of bricks and we were just digging out trying to get wherever we could because we could see the gentleman and there were some cuts to his head but he was conscious.

“I just grabbed a mattress and dragged it through the hedge to the next garden and four lads carried him through. We had to pull the hedge apart to get him out.”