DOZENS of people were evacuated from their homes in Horwich last night as firefighters battled to stop gas cylinders exploding in a garage blaze.

Residents from a two-storey block of flats and several nearby terraced houses in Owens Row, off Victoria Road, were evacuated for two hours.

One woman refused to leave her flat until she had rescued her cat.

Four large bottles of highly flammable propane were discovered to be in the fire and firefighters feared an explosion could rip through the estate.

But the blaze was found to have only scorched the bottles.

The fire is the latest in a series of fires in the Horwich area since Christmas. Last night's blaze started in a concrete garage full of builder's material and furniture, and spread to two other garages.

An Austin 1100 car parked in one of the garages also threatened to explode.

Resident Joanne Whitehead spotted flames when she arrived home from work. The 22-year-old said: "I just came home from work and spotted the garage was on fire.

"But I couldn't believe it and had to do a double take. By the time I got in my house from parking my car it was well alight."

She said the owner of the garage was contacted and alerted firefighters to the gas bottles in the garage.

Joanne said: "There were lots of people evacuated.

"It was like something from London's Burning.

"It was a really dramatic scene. There were all these popping and exploding sounds and the firemen were telling us all to stay back. It was quite frightening."

Firefighters spent two and a half hours at the scene and used two jets.

Police are investigating the cause of the fire.

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