WORKERS at a dental laboratory had a miraculous escape when a freak gust of wind blew the roof off.

The entire corrugated metal roof flew off the Unique Dental Services lab on Sydney Street yesterday afternoon. Part of it landed quarter of a mile away.

Ten workers including owners Joy and Glenn Dillon were in the premises at the time.

Mrs Dillon said she heard a "terrific rumble" before seeing the roof blow off and land in waste ground 200 yards away. She said: "We actually saw the roof blow off like matchsticks. It was very frightening at the time. We thought the whole building was going to go.

"It's a miracle that no one was injured. We are all alright and fortunately there was no one in the streets outside."

She added that moments after the freak accident there was a delivery to the laboratory. "They were very lucky," Mrs Dillon said.

Several cars were damaged by flying bricks and Mr Dillon's Ford Mondeo was written off after debris crashed down on to it.

Unique Dental Services had been based in the pre-war building for the past two years.

The roof that blew off had only been added 18 months ago. Fire crews from Bolton Central raced to the scene and scoured the area searching for any injured.

Station commander Jeff Watson said that a section of the roof had blown almost a quarter of a mile away and landed at Orlando Bridge.

This morning the future of the business looked uncertain after Mrs Dillon and the workforce arrived to find flooding had occurred over night.

She said she could not comment on the future of the business at Sydney Street.

"The insurers will be coming down today to assess the damage. Until then we don't know what is going to happen," she said.

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