The Aftermath of a Gas Explosion at St Anne's Square, Blackrock - Photographed 14 March 2009

The Urban Cartographer

Archival report and damage assessment following the dramatic 13 March 2009 gas explosion at St Anne's Square, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, including technical findings and site clearance.

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Presented By William Murphy - The Urban Cartographer - Canon 1DsIII Photographed 14 March 2009

The Aftermath of a Gas Explosion at St Anne's Square, Blackrock - Photographed 14 March 2009

Author: William Murphy - The Urban Cartographer

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03. Oct 2026

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The Aftermath of a Gas Explosion at St Anne's Square, Blackrock (Photographed 14 March 2009)

This series of photographs captures the aftermath of a devastating domestic gas explosion at St Anne’s Square in Blackrock, County Dublin, which occurred on the afternoon of Friday, 13 March 2009.

Widely reported as a miraculous escape for local residents given the scale of destruction, the incident remains one of the most dramatic residential blasts in south Dublin's recent history.

The Incident

  • Date and Time: Shortly after 2:30 pm on Friday, 13 March 2009.
  • Location: St Anne’s Square, a quiet residential enclave situated just off Temple Hill in Blackrock, Co. Dublin.
  • Scale of Damage: The force of the blast blew out both the front and rear structural walls of the terraced property, reducing the interior to rubble and severely compromising adjoining homes. Flying masonry and debris rained across the square, damaging approximately a dozen parked vehicles.

Miraculous Escapes

Remarkably, despite the sudden collapse and extensive destruction, no lives were lost:

  • Unoccupied Property: The terraced home at the centre of the explosion was empty at the exact moment of detonation.
  • A Fortunate Accident: A resident in an adjoining home had suffered a broken ankle earlier that morning. Her transfer to hospital hours before the explosion spared her from serious injury or death when the dividing walls collapsed.
  • Quiet Hours: The blast occurred during a lull in neighbourhood activity. Local residents and emergency personnel observed that had the explosion taken place a few hours later, when school pupils and commuters were returning, casualties would have been inevitable.

Emergency Response and Demolition

  • First Responders: Six units from Dublin Fire Brigade, accompanied by Advanced Paramedic teams and Gardaí, quickly secured the perimeter.
  • Evacuation: The square was cleared immediately, with displaced residents accommodated at nearby Sheehan’s public house while Bord Gáis Networks technicians isolated the mains supply.
  • Structural Clearance: With party walls fractured and roofs unsupported, several adjacent cottages were condemned as structurally unsound. Demolition contractors—including Hegarty Demolition, visible behind perimeter hoarding in subsequent photographs—were brought in to clear the unstable masonry.

Investigation and Technical Findings

Subsequent forensic inquiries conducted by Bord Gáis Networks and Dublin Fire Brigade established the following:

  • Gas Accumulation: The explosion resulted from an internal natural gas leak that concentrated within the explosive range (between the lower and upper flammability limits). In this critical window, a minute electrical trigger—such as an automated refrigerator compressor, a central heating relay, or a light switch—was sufficient to ignite the vapour.
  • Internal Dynamics: Recent modernisations featuring an open-plan layout allowed the escaping gas to distribute evenly across ground level, generating uniform overpressure that simultaneously propelled the external facades outward.
  • Infrastructure Advice: The incident prompted renewed safety reminders for owners of mature terraced homes to inspect older internal pipework, pipe joints, and appliance connections.

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