Every so often you may find your gas cooker, fire or boiler stops functioning at its optimum level, or even breaks down altogether. It may be that it has come to the end of its life and needs replacing, but sometimes it just needs some repairs or a good service.
However, there are more reasons than one to have this work done by a fully accredited engineer. Firstly, a person with the right skills will ensure the problem is diagnosed, and the right action taken to fix it and ensure you have an appliance working properly afterwards. Secondly, there is the key issue of gas safety.
It can never be repeated often enough that finding a gas safe engineer is essential to ensure the work being done will not leave you in danger. Hire a cowboy to tarmac your driveway and the worst that can happen is the surface is uneven and soon cracks up. Hire one to work on a gas appliance and you could end up with a tragedy.
How The Worst Can Happen
This could happen in one of two ways; a carbon monoxide leak can be fatally poisonous. The other is that a gas leak will only require a small spark, let alone any sort of flame, to trigger an explosion.
Just such an event appears to have happened on March 1st in the town of Bury, just north of Manchester, providing a stark warning of the potential consequences of such an event. A local councillor reported that a suspected gas explosion and subsequent fire had taken place in the Fishpool area of the town, with a terraced property lying in ruins as a result.
In addition, the neighbouring properties on either side of the destroyed house were badly damaged, while another 11 adjacent properties were cordoned off by emergency services and a nearby primary school evacuated as a precaution. Although nobody died, a woman in her 70s was taken to hospital with serious injuries, according to police.
What Witnesses Experienced
Next door neighbour Mushtaq Anwar described the terrifying experience he and his family endured to the Manchester Evening News, saying: ”All of the house was shaking and moving up and down.”
He added: “We all ran down towards the front door, but it had collapsed and was blocked by bricks. There was no way out. I thought we were going to die.”
The explosion has not yet been confirmed as gas related, although this is the likeliest cause, and it remains to be seen what exactly went wrong. However, it has been revealed that there were reports of a smell of gas on the street in the days before the blast. If so, the probable explanation is that a large gas leak was ignited by a spark or flame.
However, while it is not necessarily the case that an unauthorised and under-skilled gas engineer was involved in fitting or maintaining an appliance at the property, this is certainly the kind of catastrophe that becomes more likely after such shoddy work.
Understanding The Gas Safe Register
The best way to deal with such dangers is to prevent them from happening in the first place. The good news is that our engineers are all on the Gas Safe Register. This is a database that every engineer has to sign up to by law to prove they have been properly trained and registered. This not only keeps people and properties safe, but provides peace of mind.
Indeed, it is entirely your right when having work done on a gas appliance to ask to see the engineer’s accreditation. They will be happy to show it to you – unless of course they are not accredited, in which case you should refuse to let them in your property and get someone in who is on the register.
What Else Can You Do?
It may well be as you read this that you have concerns about some work that has recently been done on one of your appliances by someone who may not have been on the Gas Safe Register. For instance, you may have possible concerns about possible carbon monoxide leakage.
There is guidance available on how to spot the signs of this, but the best and wisest thing you can do would be to get a Gas Safe engineer in to check if everything is safe and in good working order – and take the necessary action if it is not.
Major incidents like the one in Bury are, thankfully, quite rare. But the damage they can do and the fact that unsafe gas appliances pose a risk not just to residents but neighbours too highlights why it is so important to be gas safe.