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Something to celebrate on a grey, miserable day – at least it is where I live.

Some of you may remember me posting not long ago about the explosion that destroyed (and I mean destroyed) a house in Seven Sisters, just down the road from me, and how the neighbours (one of whom happens to be a retired firefighter) went in straight away, before the emergency services got there, and pulled a woman and her two children from the wreckage. And how a local councillor had set up a support fund. Community spirit in action.

Well, it gets better. Apparently these people had no house insurance, so said councillor has now set up a trust fund to raise the money to get the house rebuilt. Not only is money is pouring in (£22,000 so far), but local builders, roofers, surveyors etc are offering their services for free. A demolition firm is already clearing the rubble without charge. Warms the cockles of my aged, disillusioned heart, but then, as I said last time, this area has always been famous for community spirit.

The cause of the explosion was, apparently, old LPG equipment combined with environmental factors, whatever that precisely means.

The mother is still in hospital, but the two children have been discharged.

If you’re wondering about the name Seven Sisters, it comes from the coal mine around which the village grew up: the mine’s first owner had seven daughters, and he named the mine after them. The original Welsh name, Blaendulais, means ‘head/ source of the (river) Dulais’.