Residents of a Southampton neighbourhood have banded together to help recover from a late-night house explosion.

Palm Valley was rocked awake by the blast on Westdale Lane at about 9pm yesterday, which left a 31-year-old man in critical condition.

Police officers and members of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service continued investigations this morning, while volunteers assisted with clean-up efforts.

Paul Hardtman, 47, said he and others took time off work to help to clear the debris.

He said: “We’re just going to clean up and see what happens. We’ll make it up as we go at the end of the day.

“We helped to get the water up from the tank for the fire service and everything’s being secured now.

“It’ll further take a while to get everything back to function, but it is what it is.”

The insurance office manager, who lived in the unit above, said he was enjoying a quiet night when he saw a fireball come up from the unit below.

Mr Hardtman added: “We didn’t really know what happened, but the whole neighbourhood came out to support him.

“Everyone was doing their bit — everyone’s calling 911, you had people making sure he was OK and everyone was just concerned for what’s going on.

“It was really good to see the neighbourhood come together like that, so now everyone’s trying to clean up.”

Mr Hardtman, who lived in the area for more than ten years, said he did not know the man well because they worked different hours.

He described the area as “quiet”, and that this was “the most noise this neighbourhood’s had in a while”.

He added that there were not many people around who could repair the unit, but said: “Everyone knows someone, so everyone’s calling someone who could maybe help out.”

Mr Hardtman said: “The road’s been a bit extra busy today with people trying to see what’s going on, which is to be expected, but overall everyone’s more concerned about the young fellow than anything else.”

He added: “The weekend’s coming, so we’ll see what else we can get done.”

Darrin Simons, the Commissioner of Police, said today that the man was “badly burnt” in the blast, understood to have possibly been caused by a gas leak.

Engineers were still determining the stability of the structure.

Kenton Trott, 41, confirmed the incident happened on his property and described the man as “my friend, my tenant and my employee”.

Mr Trott, who stayed in an adjoining unit, said he was making rounds in his taxi that night when he was contacted about the explosion.

He said: “I got a call from one of my neighbours basically telling I need to get home quickly because something’s exploded in my lower apartment and my tenant was hurt.

“I rushed home and made sure he was OK, got him into the ambulance and then had to deal with the structural soundness of the house and whatnot.

“After that I headed to the hospital to be with him.”

Mr Trott said the man had been living in the apartment for less than a year.

He added that, at last check, “he’s alive and that’s what’s important”.

Mr Trott further described the area as “amazing” and said he grew up with the rest of his neighbours.

“This is a family community,” he said. “Literally — all of our families have owned these homes for decades.

“All the adults now were children that grew up together, so we’re very much like family.”

Mr Trott said the rest of the neighbourhood was concerned and was being “extremely supportive”.

“Every single one of them have checked in multiple times. The love and support is definitely there.”

One neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was listening to music when he heard “a big bang” that shook his house.

He said: “I thought it was something coming from the regiment camp, because you can hear the gunfire and shooting when they’re doing their practising, so I didn’t know if there was an explosion down there or not.”

The man said it wasn’t until his neighbours started gathering around the street that he realised it was from his area.

He said he and his wife “heard people talking, so then everybody walked down to see what was going on”.

“Then we could see the glass and everything out in the Tribe Road.

“It rocked everybody around here.”

The man, who had lived there for more than 50 years, said the incident had “shaken” and “disturbed” the neighbourhood.

He added: “The community is kind of closely knit. Everybody knows everybody here.

“It’s all families who grew up together around here.”

The man reminded the public to be cognisant of their gas cylinders and to have them checked regularly.