Emotional Emmerdale fans left in suspense about whether the plumber survives after explosive episode

AS Emmerdale pad The Mill went up in flames, Twitter was set alight by emotional fans left on the edge of their seat wondering whether kind-hearted Ronnie Hale would fall victim.

Soap addicts took to social media in their droves straight after the hour-long episode on ITV and were clearly frustrated about being left to wait to learn the plumber's fate.

They had seen Ronnie (John McArdle) along with Dan Spencer (Liam Fox) dash onto the scene of the huge fire started by Rakesh Kotecha (Pasha Bocarie) yet during the process he fell and became unconscious.

After learning Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler) remained upstairs brave Ronnie opted to play hero and rushed in to save her - yet his life was left hanging in the balance.

One worried Emmerdale fan took straight to Twitter to write: "You can't play with my heart like this! Ronnie can't die, this isn't fair!"

Another quickly added: "Well that was explosive I'm telling ya. You could put that fire out with my tears.

"Please be OK Ronnie!"

A female fan pleaded for the handyman's future and wrote: "Please don't die Ronnie!" followed by four sobbing Emoji icons and another took to the Caps Lock key to type: "I CAN'T HANDLE THIS."

A shocked viewer added: "Can't even cope with Emmerdale," while one posted: "Cliffhanger WTF Emmerdale."

Others took to the site to give the thumbs up to the acting skills of the Emmerdale crew.

One posted: "Wow, tonight's episode of Emmerdale was amazing.

"Congratulations to all the cast and crew."

Actor Pasha also took to the site to show his appreciation for the fan outburst.

He wrote: "Thank you for all the lovely tweets about tonight's episode, so proud of Emmerdale," followed by an Emoji prayer sign.

Firestarter Rakesh had believed that the building was empty when he set light to it as part of an insurance scam.

After he made a run from the scene, Nicola became trapped when a box of white spirit explodes and sends scaffolding collapsing on to her

Yet when she was pulled to safety, it soon became clear that Nicola was injured.

As Dan waited with her until more help can arrive, Ronnie rushed back in fearing that Priya and Vanessa were inside too.

Lawrence White might now find himself regretting a previous argument where he told his former lover Ronnie he wished he was dead after things came very close to the bone.

The screen then panned to show Rakesh looking on in horror on the disaster zone he had caused.

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