What to do in an emergency when you have a gas leak…
A gas leak is a very serious situation to deal with and could be the difference between life and death. Quite literally!
You therefore need to know exactly what to do in the event of finding a gas leak in your home or buy-to-let property.
A gas leak can cause an explosion, therefore putting many lives at risk. It is therefore very important to follow the following advice, should you smell a gas leak.
What to do immediately!
If you can smell gas, you must not trigger any ignition sources. You definitely do not want to ignite anything that can create a flame. This includes anything such as smoking and even vaping. As well as turning on light switches, flicking the on/off switch to a plug socket or lighting any candles.
If possible, you must ventilate the property immediately. Open as many windows and doors within the property to allow for airflow. The fresh air will help to allow the gas to escape the property. Getting fresh air into the property will help with any potential health risk to yourself and any others within the property.
Turn off the gas. This can normally be done by accessing your meter and turning off the ECV (emergency control valve).
LPG (liquid petroleum gas) has different flammability limits but the same procedure should be applied.
Who to contact about your gas leak
You can call any gas safe registered engineer. You can check the Gas Safe Register to find an approved engineer in your area. It is best to keep details of around 5 approved and well rated Gas Safe Registered engineers on your fridge. This ensures that you have emergency contacts to hand. We say to keep around 5 as if one company cannot help straight away, you can quickly move on to the next.
Calling the national Gas Emergency Number will also ensure an approved engineer is sent out to your property as soon as possible. The number is 0800 111 999. This number can be called any time, day or night.
The dangers
The dangers are when a gas leak builds up in an area. The flammability limits of natural gas is between 5% to 15%. This means that in a room if between 5% to 15% of the air was a gas and the rest was oxygen, this is the perfect zone whereby something can ignite.
What causes the explosion?
To create a fire you must have a source of heat, oxygen and fuel (gas). So if one of those three is removed, an explosion cannot occur. This is why it is important to not create any source of ignition or spark.
The reason you can smell gas
Natural gas is actually odourless. The reason we can smell gas is because an odour has been added to it. The name of this is odour is mercaptan. It is the additive that is added to natural gas as a safety measure.
Carbon Monoxide
People often accidentally believe that gas kills you in your sleep. This is not the case. It is actually carbon monoxide, which is a by-product of incomplete combustion of the gas. This is what can kill. This is why it is so important to have working carbon monoxide detectors in the home. A landlord should provide working carbon monoxide detectors, as this is a legal requirement. Anyone who owns their property should purchase a carbon monoxide detector. Your local fire department should be able to assist with installing one of these for free.
Super Trade Services
A gas engineer from Super Trade Services would attend any gas leak situation and immediately make the area safe.
An attempt would then be made to repair the leak. Almost always a gas safe registered engineer will be able to complete this task. A tightness test would be carried out to check the gas installation was gas tight again. If there are any further complications, the gas engineer may need to call the local gas board for further assistance.
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