Are You Safe This Christmas?

Life. It’s precious, isn’t it? As a young person, we don’t ever give too much consideration to the possibility that life won’t go on forever. As I’ve gotten older though, I have begun to realise that nothing lasts forever and what we do have is very precious. Watching my new-born daughter in SCBU for two weeks was horrible and then nearly losing her at 4 months old was just horrific and really showed and made me feel the mortality of life. So why wouldn’t we do everything to protect ourselves and those we love from having totally avoidable and yet life threatening accidents? I’ve teamed up with the Gas Safe Register this Christmas season to tell you all our story which highlights the importance of getting your gas appliances checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer…

You know when you have an appliance in the home that’s kind of like your old faithful? It shouldn’t be running, but it still is. Well that’s what our old gas cooker was like. It was one of those things we’d been meaning to replace but thought, if it’s not broken then don’t fix it!

One day we suddenly noticed a beeping. It wasn’t a continuous noise and it was quite quiet but it was enough to be noticed. We had a quick hunt round but couldn’t easily locate the noise and just ignored it for a few more days. Then later I realised it was our carbon monoxide (CO) alarm we’d installed and it sounded like the batteries were dying, so I quickly popped some new ones in.

Within moments of adding the new batteries, the alarm started to sound really loudly and I wondered if I’d actually broken it. However, as it was located near ‘old faithful’ we thought we’d better get things checked out.

We had a qualified Gas Safe registered engineer come out and check all our gas appliances in the house and it turned out that good ‘old faithful’ was slowly leaking CO, often known as the ‘silent killer’ as you cannot see, smell or taste it and it can have fatal consequences. Luckily, we were okay, but it could have easily been a lot worse.

Gas Safe Register finds the highest number of unsafe appliances in UK homes during December, and unsafe gas appliances can cause gas leaks, fires, explosions and CO poisoning. If it wasn’t for our CO alarm (even with an almost dead battery) I don’t know where we’d be. If you don’t have one, GET ONE!

Gas safety is so important and yet it is probably one of those dangers around the home that we think about the least. With all the disasters and tragedies happening in the world as it is, don’t add to it and ensure that your family is kept safe this winter.

To stay gas safe this festive season, follow Gas Safe Register’s top tips:

1. Only employ a qualified Gas Safe registered engineer when having gas work carried out in your home. You can find or check a registered engineer in your area by calling Gas Safe Register on 0800 408 5500 or by visiting GasSafeRegister.co.uk

2. ‘Trust the Triangle’ and always ask to see your engineer’s Gas Safe ID card. Make sure you check the back of the card, which will state which gas appliances they are qualified to work on.

3. Sign up for a reminder service to make sure your gas appliances are checked annually: StayGasSafe.co.uk

4. If you smell gas or think there might be a gas leak, or suspect carbon monoxide call the free 24-hour national gas emergency number immediately on 0800 111 999.

To find out about dangers in your area visit www.StayGasSafe.co.uk and to find a Gas Safe registered engineer call 0800 408 5500 or visit www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk.

I’ll be joining BritMum’s Twitter Party on 8 December at 1pm talking about how we can all have a #GasSafeXmas, see you there maybe!

*This is a collaborative post.