A PLUMBING boss has spoken for the first time about the explosion which destroyed his premises and left him with a choice - sink or swim.

Paul Robinson chose the latter and has worked around the clock to make sure the 100 year-old company Joshua Grimshaw, in Bank Top, Blackburn, stayed afloat.

The firm was back in business one day after the blast and managed to maintain its workforce of five, as well as all its contracts.

The owner of the neighbouring Hina Indian, Zaheer Ali, 25, of Lancaster Place, Blackburn, bought the restaurant in early 2001 on a 10-year lease and with a £25,000 insurance policy.

An explosion wrecked the restaurant and the plumbing business. Ali's friend, Majid Hussain, 25, of Montague Street, Blackburn, was taken to hospital with facial injuries after the explosion.

A petrol can was found in Ali's car. Hussain denied carrying out the attack and Ali claimed he had not put him up to it.

But a jury at Preston Crown Court found them guilty unanimously of arson. They will be sentenced next month.

Since the blast, Paul's business has operated temporarily from a rented a unit on Moorings Industrial Estate.

Paul said had to pay "thousands of pounds" for this himself as it was not covered on his insurance.

He said he did not want to go through the legal wrangling of trying to recover the money from the restaurant's insurance.

Fourteen months on, things are starting to settle down.

Work to rebuild the Bank Top premises into a detached property is scheduled to begin next week. It will take two months.

Paul is looking forward to putting the incident in the past, but has mixed feelings about returning to Bank Top.

"It has been soured a bit but I will be relieved to get normality back.

"I was going to move somewhere else, but we were forced to rebuild. We have been given instructions to start right away.

"It has been a hard 14 months and difficult to get things moving. I had to put a lot of extra time in and we lost a substantial amount of money."

Paul was told of the blast by a colleague after driving to work at 7am. He said he felt little towards the men except a hope that they received a prison sentence.