The mother of a schoolgirl who was killed when a gas explosion destroyed a house has told an inquest about the frantic attempts to save her "baby".
Nine-year-old Stephanie Hammacott died when the blast buried her under rubble as she walked to school in Plymouth, Devon, on January 8 last year.
She was walking with her mother Carol who told the hearing that immediately before the explosion, Stephanie had asked if she could smell something and it was as Mrs Hammacott answered that she thought it was gas that the house blew up.
Mrs Hammacott said her daughter was walking one or two paces in front of her when a "strong, sickly smell" went right to the back of her throat.
She said: "There was a great big bang. I don't think you could describe it. It's still in my head and in my ears.
"I can still feel it. For a split second I didn't know where I was."
The explosion came from a property in Bulteel Gardens where elderly couple Ronald and Harriet Cloke live. The blast caused the side wall of the house to fall into the street.
Miraculously the couple escaped with only minor injuries.
Mrs Hammacott said the image of Mrs Cloke, 86, standing in her upstairs bedroom looking out with the wall completely gone and fire around her would "stay with me forever".
She said: "I wondered where Steph was and realised she was in the rubble."
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