I was somewhat jesting with the 'Gas Safe' comment, but thought I'd reply to Russ's comment by saying that gas is dangerous, you only have to go back a week or so to the incident in Greater Manchester to remind yourself just what gas can do. If your neighbour decides one day to have a go at servicing his boiler and overnight there is a gas leak and explosion, that will put you and your family at risk. Three houses were flattened in Manchester, quite a few more were damaged, it's a miracle nobody was killed. Laws are there to protect.

Not a dig at you O-N, but has that actually been said yet, or is it still being investigated? Because I can't help but wonder if its just as likely that an 82 year old lady might have got confused by the controls of her new oven and not switched it off properly.

I had to modify a number of cookers as part of my last job as there safety concerns about the grills not venting properly if the door was closed. A number of customers complained that these newer ovens were very difficult to light (turning and holding two buttons at once) and because the grill was lower than their old applience they couldn't see if the flame was lit/extinguished when swicthing on/off. (This particular "fault" was a CO risk if the grill was not used as the instructions stated).

Mom teaches cookery at a school and says the newer ovens require you to hold the ignition and the oven knob in for a couple of minutes after it has lit and a number of times people have thought the oven was lit, gone back to their desk and returned to find the flame is out but the gas is on.

That is madness, Louise

That's true Louise it is a possibility. When it was reported on the news that a new kitchen had just been installed and they were looking into the possible causes of the explosion I hadn't reckoned on user unfamiliarity as a factor.

Can't you smell gas anymore though? I ask this because I've almost entirely lost my sense of smell, so I honestly don't know now? We could smell it years ago when it used to kill you if you breathed it in overnight but they changed the composition of gas somewhere along the line.

Thanks for patronising me, I had no idea gas was dangerous. I'm glad you cleared that up.

Stupidity will always find a way to persevere. Common sense should be allowed to flourish however, instead of being quashed and bypassed by rules that I believe make it harder for people to excersise thier freedom.

Yeah I hate the smell, it makes me gag. I think I'm over sensitive to it really, as a sparky going into peoples homes and meter cupboards, I must have called 0800 111 999 a million times (I don't even have to look that up anymore), more often than not the gas engineer couldn't detect any leaks

I guess it might also be that another contractor has screwed something to the wall/put a floorboard down without checking the pipe runs.

At our old place the electrician working in the downstairs flat caused a leak by unscrewing a board, the screw was sealing the pipe until he came to lift the board! The "cleanliness" of the occupant and his doubley-incontinent cat meant that nobody smelled the leak until there was quite a build up!

Makes you wonder why Al Qaeda bother doesn't it?

gas is dangerous, but it was a case uf dis connectoing a cooker removing it, doing kitchen and re connecting, i wasnt being paid;)

so it was really much of a gass man type thing butoh well!!

I'm due to meet a n(Seb'Fou) in Gay Paree tomorrow to collect some 2cv parts. I've had a good look at Google Streetview and it turns out the place he's meeting me is just up the road from the Arc de Triomphe roundabout. Having done it before in an Ami8 (which accelerated so slowly it was a case of crash the red lights at the end of the Champs Elysee and enter the roundabout doing a fair old lick, or never pull out at all) I'm well game for having another stab at it in my 2CV. I'll get the Camera set up first though, so as to record the carnage as it happens.

good lad russ!
cos its people coming onto the roundabout have right of way?