A woman may have survived a massive explosion because she was using the toilet when her apartment blew up, neighbours said yesterday.

One woman neighbour, who helped comfort the woman after she escaped the blast and blaze with only minor injuries, said the explosion destroyed the woman’s ground floor bedroom.

“She got up to use the toilet — if not she could have died,” the neighbour said. “The place crumbled like it was a toy.”

The 54-year-old woman resident was stuck in the rubble after the explosion destroyed most of the rear of the house, pushed out other walls and wrecked the roof.

But the woman neighbour said: “She got out safely with just a few minor burns. She wondered about collecting her clothes — but it was too late for that.”

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she was awake and feeding her five-month-old daughter when the explosion rocked the house, at Railway Terrace, at the junction of Palmetto Rd and Border Lane South, around 2.40am this morning.

“There were a lot of explosions — it was like an earthquake, there was rubble and water running out of the pipes,” she said. “There was a small fire at one corner, then it expanded. The police and fire service were here within three to five minutes, they were so quick.”

The neighbour, a mother of three, said piles of rubble and other debris were thrown on to her back garden by the force of the blast.

“There were flames shooting over our own back yard and one of their windows hit our back door,” she said. “My children play out in the yard — it’s lucky it happened when it did. They could have been out there playing. They were just out there playing on Saturday.”

Maurice Trott, who lives nearby, said he was woken by a loud explosion shortly after 2am — which he thought at first was a car crash.

“I looked out my front door and didn’t see anything,” he said. “Then I saw a police car stop right outside the house, and saw the house on fire. I don’t know what blew up, but it was a loud explosion.”

Mr Trott said the three apartment home, which had four people in it at the time of the blast, housed an elderly man, his daughter, who had the apartment to the rear of the house, and another tenant on the front lower floor.

He used to live in the apartment occupied by the man’s daughter years ago and that alterations meant there was only one door, at the rear of the daughter’s apartment.

“They are both all right — the girl I think is still in the hospital,” Mr Trott said. “I’m still wondering how she got out of there alive. It’s a miracle.”

Eugene Vickers, who lives across the road from the devastated home, said:

“They did well to live — the bottom apartment is all messed up. They were very lucky.”

A police spokesman said fire service experts were carrying out an investigation to pinpoint the cause of the explosion and structural engineers will reassess the damage today to check if the building is safe enough to allow the occupants to return.

A section of Palmetto Rd was cordoned off for several hours, but reopened early yesterday.