A SAFETY device costing just £30 could have prevented the gas explosion which demolished a house in East Lancashire injuring three people, it was claimed today.

Marketing director Martin Hughes-Jones claimed the Magne-Flo safety valve distributed by his company, Tudor Products, would have cut off the gas supply if it had been fitted to the Nelson house destroyed in the blast.

And today he called on the Health and Safety Executive to consider making the installation of gas safety features mandatory in all homes.

"No one would want electricity without a fuse system, so why put lives and property at risk of explosion when this inexpensive gas safety valve is available?"

The police are heading an investigation into the blast, which also involves the Health and Safety Executive and Transco, the gas distribution company.

The explosion ripped through the house on the corner of Burns Street and Scott Street, which was divided into two flats, and badly damaged the house next door belonging to pensioners Joan and Dennis Nancarrow.

Three people were injured, including a man from the flats who was transferred to the burns unit at Preston Royal Infirmary.

A spoksman for the Health and Safety Executive said the organisation was currently assessing a number of excess flow valves and was investigating the role they could play in gas safety.

He said: "As yet, conclusive evidence of their value has to be proved."

A spokesman for Transco said it was responsible for the gas flow up to the meter and any problem within the house was the responsibility of the resident.