SWFRS pledges support for Gas Safety Week
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS) has pledged their support for the sixth annual Gas Safety Week taking place from 19-25 September as part of the Fire Kills campaign. The week is designed to raise awareness of the dangers of poorly maintained gas appliances, which can cause gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.
SWFRS has partnered with gas emergency and pipeline service Wales & West Utilities to target high risk, vulnerable individuals across the South Wales area and will be including CO alarm checks as part of the Service’s home safety visits. Practitioners will also provide more details on how to stay safe.
Last year, SWFRS attended over 200 suspected carbon monoxide incidents, but since April of this year, the Service has already been called out 83 times to suspected CO incidents. The majority of these are to homes.
Group Manager Matt Jones, Head of Home Safety for South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said, “With the colder weather approaching, many people will be using their gas appliances more over the coming months. It is important that all gas appliances are safety checked at least once a year as poorly serviced gas appliances can be dangerous and even prove fatal.
“Check for warning signs that your appliances aren’t working correctly, such as lazy yellow or orange flames instead of crisp blue ones, black marks on or around the appliance and too much condensation in the room.”
Follow these tips to stay gas safe:
- Have all your gas appliances, including boilers, gas cookers and gas fires, safety checked every year
- Have an audible carbon monoxide alarm. This will alert you if carbon monoxide is present in your home
- Always use a Gas Safe registered engineer to fit, fix and service gas appliances in your home – it’s the law and will help keep you safe. Check your engineer is Gas Safe registered. You can find and check an engineer at www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk or call 0800 408 5500
- Check for warning signs that your appliances aren’t working correctly e.g. lazy yellow or orange flames instead of crisp blue ones, black marks on or around the appliance and too much condensation in the room
- Know the six signs of carbon monoxide poisoning – headaches, dizziness, breathlessness, nausea, collapse and loss of consciousness
- If you smell gas or suspect Carbon Monoxide in your home, please call the National Gas Emergency number 0800 111 999 any time day or night
Sign up for a free reminder service at www.StayGasSafe.co.uk, and use the interactive gas map to see how many unsafe gas appliances are lurking in an area
Richard Jones, Wales & West Utilities Gas Emergency Service Manager for South Wales continued, “It is important that people know the simple steps they can take to make sure they are gas safe. It can be easy to it for granted, but gas can be dangerous. Badly fitted and poorly serviced gas appliances can cause leaks, fires, explosions and Carbon Monoxide poisoning. “Taking these simple steps can save lives and we urge everyone to look at their appliances before the winter months set in, when more and more people start to use their gas central heating.”
Every year, far too many people suffer from preventable gas related accidents, such as gas leaks, explosions, fires and carbon monoxide poisoning and by supporting part of the Fire Kills campaign, we are raising awareness of gas safety issues, helping to let the approximately 3.2m gas consumers in Wales know about the simple checks they can make to stay safe.”
For more information about the partnership between South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and Wales & West Utilities, or how you can go about getting a home safety check, visit www.southwales-fire.gov.uk
