Coroner advises CO alarms for all homes with gas appliances

[hydrotherm]

Sadly just watched news report about young woman who lost her life to CO poisoning from faulty boiler. British Gas had attended boiler three months previous . We will have to wait for further details as the news report said the boiler was classed At Risk but left running. Maybe the newsroom have got the details wrong.
The Coroner went on to say all homes with gas appliances should have CO alarm fitted and that safety procedures regarding boilers should be reviewed.
Personally I think that the system we have in place at the moment is sufficient if interpreted and enforced properly by the engineer.
The only obstacle we have at present is the irate customer when we ID or AR an appliance.The time will come when we have to show them a list of fatal incidents to prove that CO is a silent killer and it is their safety that is our prime concern.

 

[villa_tom]

I would tend to agree with the coroner to be honest - for the sake of twenty-odd quid, its not much to protect yourself and potentially save your life. Although we have a system in place with the unsafe situations precedures there are millions of homes that don't have their gas appliances serviced on a regular basis, so a COD would be good for those people. Whenever I fit gas fires now I put a COD in with the fire and factor it into my price. I'm subbung to BG at the moment and they sell COD's and when I first started I thought it was just another way for them to make money - which to be fair it is. But it also has a practical reason associated to it and an important safety message. I think part of the problem is that people in general need educating about the dangers of CO poisoning and if they had that they would be more understanding when we AR or ID their boilers, fires, etc

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

BBC News - Tribute to daughter 'poisoned by carbon monoxide'
is this the sad story?

 

[hydrotherm]

No thats not the one. The woman was 30 years old and the husband came home to find the cat dead in the hallway before going on to find his wife

 

[villa_tom]

Where have you seen this story?

 

[hydrotherm]

ITV News at 6 this evening

 

[kirkgas]

i appreciate the sentiments of fitting CO detectors with open flued boilers, however we are struggling to get everyone to have working smoke alarms in their houses, but as mentioned by others nothing will replace good quality routine servicing but it aint gonna happen, and i do not mean to be disrespesctful to anyone in any way, but it would appear that the only people who give blood have a sick relative, the only people who campaign for smoke alarms have lost someone in a fire and the only ones who fit CO alarms have been affected by an incident, human nature it would seem that it takes an incident to motivate people

 

[villa_tom]

i appreciate the sentiments of fitting CO detectors with open flued boilers, however we are struggling to get everyone to have working smoke alarms in their houses, but as mentioned by others nothing will replace good quality routine servicing but it aint gonna happen, and i do not mean to be disrespesctful to anyone in any way, but it would appear that the only people who give blood have a sick relative, the only people who campaign for smoke alarms have lost someone in a fire and the only ones who fit CO alarms have been affected by an incident, human nature it would seem that it takes an incident to motivate people

SPOT ON!!! To many people have an "it'll never happen to me" attitude. Maybe boiler manufacturers could put COD's in with the new boiler and that way every new boiler would atleast have one.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

i agree.to be fair a letting agent i work for we put it to them every property should have a co alarm,we will fit it for cost,they agreed i have fitted 130 Honeywell co alarms,so i service all these boilers annually but they have extra piece of mind

 

[villa_tom]

i agree.to be fair a letting agent i work for we put it to them every property should have a co alarm,we will fit it for cost,they agreed i have fitted 130 Honeywell co alarms,so i service all these boilers annually but they have extra piece of mind

Thats a good way to work to be honest - I dont work for any letting agents, I've offered my services but heard nothing back. Anyway, If I ever did I would try and work the way you are doing here. When I used to work at my old place it was all council properties and any flue that passed through a void and could not be inspected or open flued appliances we would fit them at cost like yourself for the council. Eventually we where going to put them in every home regardless of appliance in there.

 

[stevetheplumber]

i saw the report and bg ARed the boiler sometime before so must assume that they turned it back on against expert advice
i personally would like GS to publish details of these incidentsin the magazine same when they put a piece in saying someone has been prosecuted for sub standard work we should see more details of what the problems actually were
the more details we see of where others have gone wrong would help us all in much the same way reading bits on here widens your experience

 

[CMairiD]

The CO Report for 09/10 showed that half the deaths for the year (4) could have been avoided if people had followed the warning notices left by the gas engineer. They concluded that these actions aren't strong enough!?!

You advise, label, a issue notice, turn off or cut & cap. I'm at a loss as to what more engineers can do.

 

[Reg Man]

This incident occurred last february in Wokingham Nr Reading. Absolute tradgic story.

 

[Reg Man]

Newlywed 'perfect' daughter of leading gallery owner dies of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning | Mail Online

Enclosed is link for news report on for mentioned CO poisoning.

 

[Reg Man]

Newlywed died in bath after leaking boiler poisoned air with carbon monoxide | Mail Online

Enclosed is link to report on inquest.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

do we know what appliance was involved? seems a set of terrible circumstances led to the fatality

 

[markproperjob]

So much truth said on this topic guys.
i'm not involved in gas work, i opted to go full oftec , plumb and heating controls, as my area has minimal mains gas to provide a service for.
i strongly advise anyone running a kero boiler, especially vapourising stoves/cookers, to invest in a co alarm.

I attended a job years ago, in which an elderly lady had recently been hospitalised, and first thing i did (as per my routine) was pop a smoke pellet into the oil-fired AGA flue.
the kitchen instantly filled with smoke.
turned out, her 'late husband had always serviced the aga'.
After i had completed my work, the aga was to spec and running perfectly, and i took away 4 BLACK SACKS FULL OF DEAD JACKDAWS AND NESTS from her flue. it had been blocked solid.
if an alarm had been present, and annual servicing carried out by a professional, no harm would have happened.