POLICE confirmed a gas leak was responsible for the massive explosion that tragically killed 80-year-old John Richard Fisher and reduced the home, where he lived alone, to rubble.

Emergency services arrived on the scene to find the house completely destroyed with asbestos debris up to 100 metres away from the site. It was immediately declared a HAZMAT incident.

Police concluded their investigations at the site on June 15 and handed it over to Great Lakes Council who began cleanup of site.

“Had it been left to the estate (of the deceased) the matter and the clean up may well have dragged on for any number of weeks,” council general manager Glenn Handford said.

“That’s why we jumped in and said we’d be happy to supervise the clean up because we have the necessary knowledge and skills and once completed we’ll be making a claim on the estate. We’ve already entered discussions with the solicitors who were quite relieved that we were willing to step in and clean up.”

Mr Handford said that despite the extraordinary nature of the explosion, the cleanup has posed no huge difficulties.

“On this occasion it was a bit different because the house actually blew up, but in regards to the asbestos it (the clean up) hasn’t been any different to what we’ve dealt with the past,” he said.

“The nature of the waste does pose a health risk but it’s no different to any asbestos house that has been demolished or damaged by fire. Provided it’s done correctly, it’s pretty straight forward.”

Apart from using specialised equipment to gather up the asbestos debris, council staff have also taken four inches of top soil from the site and surrounding areas which will be redressed this week.

Surrounding home-owners have also been served cleanup notices in the wake of the explosion.

“We have advised them that we won’t stop them returning to their homes but they have also been served with a cleanup notice,” Mr Handford said.

“As the asbestos does pose a health risk we want to ensure the safety of all residents, tradesman or anyone who enters the site. We’ve advised those affected residents to speak with their relative insurers to facilitate that and they’ve all been very accommodating and shown a lot of common sense in that regard.”