Warwickshire County Councils Fire and Rescue Service is supporting Gas Safety Week (14-20 September 2015) and will be helping to raise awareness of gas safety issues to keep the public safe from dangerous gas appliances.
This fifth annual Gas Safety Week will see organisations across the UK working together to raise awareness of the dangers of poorly maintained gas appliances, which cause gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. In the last year, at least 68,000 homes in the UK escaped deadly gas incidents such as these, by engineers switching off dangerous appliances1. Nearly one in two of these incidents were caused because a gas appliance had not been regularly serviced and had been left in a poor state.
With 20 deaths and 1,000 gas-related injuries in the last three years it’s vital that people make sure their gas appliances are safety checked every year by a registered engineer. Anyone working on gas appliances while not being Gas Safe registered is working illegally.
Moreno Francioso, Community Fire Prevention Manager said: “We know from the Gas Safe Registers investigations that one in six gas appliances in the UK are unsafe, meaning far too many people are victims of preventable gas related incidents. To raise public awareness of gas safety and reduce the number of dangerous gas appliances lurking in the homes of the UK’s 23 million gas consumers please follow these four simple top tips to stay gas safe.
- Get all of your gas appliances safety checked once a year by a registered engineer and sign up to a free reminder service at www.StayGasSafe.co.uk
- Make sure your engineer is legal and safe, by making sure they are registered with Gas Safe Register, the UK’s official gas authority. You can check by calling 0800 408 5500 or visiting www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk
- Check for warning signs your appliances aren’t working correctly, such as a lazy yellow flame instead of a crisp blue one, black marks on or around the appliance and too much condensation in the room.
- Fit a carbon monoxide alarm.”
Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet Holder for Community Safety, John Horner said: “Every year, far too many people suffer from preventable gas related accidents, such as gas leaks, explosions, fires and carbon monoxide poisoning. It’s great therefore, that Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service has pledged its support and is raising awareness of gas safety issues.”
Cllr Philp Johnson, Chair of the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, added: “To reduce the chances of suffering the potentially devastating effect of a gas explosion or carbon monoxide poisoning I would urge users of gas appliances and gas heating to ensure that these are regularly serviced and maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer.”