Some of you may have seen this news item.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7037020.stm

This block consists of top flats over groups of three town houses.
The house which blew up was unoccupied. Transco had been called because of
the smell of gas and had already been digging up the road looking for the
leak for 6 hours before the blast.

The flat on top has been very seriously damaged (balcony fell off, much
water damage, everything glass shattered, all windows (on the other side
to the photo) broken, water damage from fire service etc. etc.

How do I know? The flat on top belongs to my Dad and his wife, they are
now living for the next six months with my sister a few miles away.

I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

In article , Ed Sirett
scribeth thus
Some of you may have seen this news item.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7037020.stm

This block consists of top flats over groups of three town houses.
The house which blew up was unoccupied. Transco had been called because of
the smell of gas and had already been digging up the road looking for the
leak for 6 hours before the blast.

The flat on top has been very seriously damaged (balcony fell off, much
water damage, everything glass shattered, all windows (on the other side
to the photo) broken, water damage from fire service etc. etc.

How do I know? The flat on top belongs to my Dad and his wife, they are
now living for the next six months with my sister a few miles away.

I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.


Sad as that undoubtedly is Ed, surely this is for an H&S executive
enquiry to find out what went wrong, and then decide who was to blame
unless you have firm evidence otherwise in which case I'm sure you'll
give them that....
--
Tony Sayer

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:47:19 UTC, Ed Sirett
wrote:

Some of you may have seen this news item.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7037020.stm

This block consists of top flats over groups of three town houses.
The house which blew up was unoccupied. Transco had been called because of
the smell of gas and had already been digging up the road looking for the
leak for 6 hours before the blast.

There was a bit on the local news this morning (I'm in Kent). Someone
was quoted as saying that they had actually turned off the gas, but
levels were not dropping - and they couldn't work out why.
--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

Sorry to hear about what happened to your dad and his wife.

I wonder what the the escalation process is after detecting a leak. I
would hope that if a leak is detected, that unless the cause can be
rapidly found, they call in the cavalry. Maybe they misdiagnosed
another leak as the cause.

In article ,
Ed Sirett wrote:
Some of you may have seen this news item.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7037020.stm

[snip]

How do I know? The flat on top belongs to my Dad and his wife, they are
now living for the next six months with my sister a few miles away.

Ouch. This isn't far from us - I remember hearing all the sirens (we
aren't far from the ambulance station) and wondering wtf was going on.

Strange how it all feels more personal now I know someone who I know
(well, know of virtually) had someone involved. Wierd.

I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.

Good news. Seems everyone got away with minimal injurys. Will be interesting
to here the outcome of the investigation...

Hope your dad and missus get on ok.

Darren

In message ,
writes
Thus spake Owain ) unto the assembled
multitudes:
I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them.

Having a quiet smoke?

One night in the street where I lived some 20 years ago I noticed a very
strong smell of gas. I called the British Gas people out (this was years
before everything got contracted out), and they attended within the hour
(this was at nearly midnight). As the crew were digging a hole, one of
them nonchalantly lit a pipe. I guess the concentration of gas was well
below flammability, but it did give me the willies at the time, I can tell
you.

Gas is explosive in a concentration of between 5 and 15 percent

--
geoff

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:21:48 +0000, geoff wrote:

In message ,
writes
Thus spake Owain ) unto the assembled
multitudes:
I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them.

Having a quiet smoke?

One night in the street where I lived some 20 years ago I noticed a very
strong smell of gas. I called the British Gas people out (this was years
before everything got contracted out), and they attended within the hour
(this was at nearly midnight). As the crew were digging a hole, one of
them nonchalantly lit a pipe. I guess the concentration of gas was well
below flammability, but it did give me the willies at the time, I can tell
you.

Gas is explosive in a concentration of between 5 and 15 percent

I suspect that this was a lot of gas, given the huge fireball that came
after the blast I suspect that the concentration may have been towards the
UEL.



--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:09:43 +0100, tony sayer wrote:

In article , Ed Sirett
scribeth thus
Some of you may have seen this news item.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7037020.stm

This block consists of top flats over groups of three town houses.
The house which blew up was unoccupied. Transco had been called because of
the smell of gas and had already been digging up the road looking for the
leak for 6 hours before the blast.

The flat on top has been very seriously damaged (balcony fell off, much
water damage, everything glass shattered, all windows (on the other side
to the photo) broken, water damage from fire service etc. etc.

How do I know? The flat on top belongs to my Dad and his wife, they are
now living for the next six months with my sister a few miles away.

I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.


Sad as that undoubtedly is Ed, surely this is for an H&S executive
enquiry to find out what went wrong, and then decide who was to blame
unless you have firm evidence otherwise in which case I'm sure you'll
give them that....

I'm sure the H&S executive will make their investigations. I'll be
interested to know how it happened.

I speculate that it could have been a broken service main as the ground
around the flat is somewhat prone to movement. The block itself however is
very strong being of reinforced concrete with foundations piled down to
the bedrock.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:20:49 -0700, wrote:

Sorry to hear about what happened to your dad and his wife.

I wonder what the the escalation process is after detecting a leak. I
would hope that if a leak is detected, that unless the cause can be
rapidly found, they call in the cavalry. Maybe they misdiagnosed
another leak as the cause.

I think they did call in the cavalry. One possible problem is that they
may have been reluctant to gain entry to the empty house under my Dad's
flat.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

In article ,
Ed Sirett writes:
On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:21:48 +0000, geoff wrote:
Gas is explosive in a concentration of between 5 and 15 percent

I suspect that this was a lot of gas, given the huge fireball that came
after the blast I suspect that the concentration may have been towards the
UEL.

It could be that there was one room within the explosive
range, and another room at a higher concentration, which
was released by the explosion to form a fireball. A
visible fireball probably requires an excess of gas and
deficiency of oxygen in the mixture in order to create
the classic fireball colour.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Thu, 11 Oct 07 19:03:45 GMT, dmc wrote:

In article ,
Ed Sirett wrote:
Some of you may have seen this news item.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7037020.stm

[snip]

How do I know? The flat on top belongs to my Dad and his wife, they are
now living for the next six months with my sister a few miles away.

Ouch. This isn't far from us - I remember hearing all the sirens (we
aren't far from the ambulance station) and wondering wtf was going on.

Strange how it all feels more personal now I know someone who I know
(well, know of virtually) had someone involved. Wierd.

I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.

Good news. Seems everyone got away with minimal injurys. Will be interesting
to here the outcome of the investigation...

Hope your dad and missus get on ok.

Darren

Maybe you should re-word that last sentence

SteveW

On Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:51:30 +0100, Steve Walker wrote:

On Thu, 11 Oct 07 19:03:45 GMT, dmc wrote:

In article ,
Ed Sirett wrote:
Some of you may have seen this news item.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7037020.stm

[snip]

How do I know? The flat on top belongs to my Dad and his wife, they are
now living for the next six months with my sister a few miles away.

Ouch. This isn't far from us - I remember hearing all the sirens (we
aren't far from the ambulance station) and wondering wtf was going on.

Strange how it all feels more personal now I know someone who I know
(well, know of virtually) had someone involved. Wierd.

I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.

Good news. Seems everyone got away with minimal injurys. Will be interesting
to here the outcome of the investigation...

Hope your dad and missus get on ok.

Darren

Maybe you should re-word that last sentence


I've yet hear how/if the explosion has affected their relationship.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

In message , Ed Sirett
writes
I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.

Good news. Seems everyone got away with minimal injurys. Will be interesting
to here the outcome of the investigation...

Hope your dad and missus get on ok.

Darren

Maybe you should re-word that last sentence


I've yet hear how/if the explosion has affected their relationship.


"did the earth move ...?"


--
geoff

On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:51:42 +0000, geoff wrote:

In message , Ed Sirett
writes
I normally have some respect for many of the Transco guys but I want
to know what they were doing for six hours before the blast nearly killed
them. Fortunately they got away with a few cuts and bruises.

Good news. Seems everyone got away with minimal injurys. Will be interesting
to here the outcome of the investigation...

Hope your dad and missus get on ok.

Darren

Maybe you should re-word that last sentence


I've yet hear how/if the explosion has affected their relationship.


"did the earth move ...?"

ROFL.

The earth moving may well be at the root of the matter.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html