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Gas Safe news
Investigating the cause of gas incidents
frames that need to be worked within. The specialist team of eight covers the whole UK, including Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.
“I first got involved with incident investigation more than 20 years ago,” he says. “My work as a regional investigations officer is interspersed with incident investigations as and when they occur.
“My own experience has included working with specialist investigative teams when suspected bomb making was believed to have gone wrong, murder investigation and malicious actions leading to injury.”
The specialists
He’s keen to emphasise that the nature of this specialist role means that they have additional tools and equipment and, due to the nature of the work. Two investigators always attend – with the lead investigator taking responsibility for producing the report.
“I enjoy the role but it is often stressful: you usually only get one chance to collect all the evidence required. Once you have tested and then dismantled an appliance, the original evidence is then lost.
“I like working as part of a team, both within Gas Safe Register and with outside agencies. It may be that an elderly person has passed away, often alone. But we all come together to find out why, how could it have been prevented, what lessons can be learned from it and what improvements could be made to reduce the likelihood of it happening again.
“Survivors of carbon monoxide poisoning incidents and family members are often left distressed and confused but we have to
Boiler inner flue extended with a drainpipe to terminate outside
interview them empathetically to try and piece together the circumstances that led to the poisoning or fatality of a family member.
“And it’s important to realise that these incidents are stressful to us as well, particularly when they involve children.” ■
Safety device overridden and held in the open position with string
A corroded and unsecured chimney/flue: the boiler was still in use
