Risk of deadly gas blasts rising as cash-strapped UK homeowners skip checks

[Still Waters]

The risk of catastrophic gas blasts is being heightened by cash-strapped homeowners skipping checks for potentially deadly faults, safety experts have warned.

Cookers, fires and boilers left unchecked can cause leaks, which “lead to fires and explosions that cost lives and shatter neighbourhoods,” said Bob Kerr, the gas services director at Gas Safe Register.

The body, which operates under agreement with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), found that almost one in three householders will skip booking an annual gas safety check this year, due to the cost-of-living crisis. A boiler service costs about £80 while a gas safety check for three appliances costs about £60.

The warning comes as investigators concluded a gas leak from internal piping was responsible for huge explosion last Sunday at a house in Kingstanding, Birmingham that killed Doreen Rees-Bibb, 79, and critically injured a man.

https://jnews.uk/risk-of-deadly-gas-blasts-rising-as-cash-strapped-uk-homeowners-skip-checks-gas/