Image caption Several buildings collapsed in the blast

A shop owner accused of causing an explosion that destroyed a number of buildings and left 31 people injured has appeared in court. Pascal Blasio, 56, of Gillingham in Kent, appeared at Wirral Magistrates' Court in Birkenhead on Wednesday charged with causing an explosion likely to endanger life or injure property after the blast in New Ferry on March 25 last year. Blasio, director of the Homes in Style shop on Bebington Road, New Ferry, was given unconditional bail and ordered to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on May 2. he ‘unlawfully and maliciously caused by an explosive substance an explosion of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.’

Mr Blasio is listed as the director of Homes In Style LTD, a furniture store based at the address at the centre of the explosion on March 25, 2017. He appeared in front of a packed courtroom - with more than 20 people in the public gallery - including Lewis Jones who was seriously injured in the blast in New Ferry on March 25, 2017. Contract Natural Gas Limited (CNG), an independent gas supplier which provides gas exclusively to business customers, has also been charged with an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to discharge general health and safety duty to a person other than an employee. The details of the charge being that between 22/8/2012 and 25/3/2017 in Birkenhead, they failed to conduct their undertaking to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of persons not in its employment, including Lewis Jones, by failing to ensure that the redundant live gas service to 43 Bebington Road was disconnected following removing the meter. Neither Blasio or the gas company representatives entered any pleas. The blast, which happened at 9.15pm on a Saturday, destroyed a dance studio where children had been just an hour before and blew in the front of a Chinese restaurant.
Pascal Blasio makes an initial court appearance charged with causing an explosion likely to endanger life in connection to a 2017 blast that injured 31 in New Ferry, England.