Audrey and Douglas Davies at their home in Mereside, Shrewsbury, where Douglas suffered burns in a shed explosion

A 78-year-old Shropshire man was pulled from his garden shed by his next-door neighbour after it exploded while he was changing a gas bottle.

Douglas Davies, of Mereside, Shrewsbury, was taken to hospital with burns to his face and hands after the explosion at 5.40pm yesterday.

Neighbour Claire Stevens, 35, heard a loud bang and rushed upstairs thinking it was from her son’s bedroom.

But when she realised it was from Mr Davies’s shed, she ran outside and jumped over the fence to pull him to safety.

Today Mr Davies said he did not even hear the bang and the first thing he was aware of was his neighbour helping him out.

He said: “I was changing the gas bottle and I did not tighten it up properly. I was cleaning the paint off a bench with a blow torch. I went to light it and it went. I never heard a sound.

“The first thing I knew was my hands were all burnt and my neighbour came in. She’s a hero.

“I was lucky. It could have been a lot worse.”

Miss Stevens said: “I was just in the kitchen and I heard a massive bang. It sounded like it came from the boys’ bedroom so I rushed upstairs. My son was at the window pointing at Douglas’s shed and I noticed the roof had collapsed and there was smoke billowing out.

“I knew he was in there because he is always tinkering in there. I ran into the garden and called him a few times but heard nothing so I jumped over the fence and I went in and he was just stumbling out and his hair was smoking.

“I grabbed him and led him up the garden.”

Mr Douglas’s wife Audrey, 72, said she did not realise the bang was from her own garden.

She said: “The neighbour said she had never run so fast in her life. I went round last night to thank her.”

Mr Douglas was let out of hospital yesterday but has to go back for a check-up today.

The ambulance service and two fire engines and the incident commander from Shrewsbury attended.

Buckets of water were used to put out the fire.

An Ambulance Service spokesman said the shed had suffered “considerable” damage.

By Rebecca Lawrence