6.2 — Gas, Electricity and Carbon Monoxide

Three household hazards that share a property: they are invisible, they give little warning, and the correct response to each is short and specific.

Gas leak

Recognising it

Smell. **Natural gas and LPG are both odourless and have a strong smell added specifically so leaks are detectable. If you can smell gas, treat it as real.

Hissing near an appliance, cylinder or pipe.

A cylinder that feels unusually cold at a fitting.

Bubbles if you brush soapy water on a joint — the standard test, and it is safe.

And with LPG cylinders, which is the common domestic arrangement in India: LPG is heavier than air and collects at floor level, in pits and in basements. This matters because it means the danger zone is low down.

What to do

In order, and the order matters.

Do not operate any electrical switch. **Not on, not off. **A switch produces a spark. This includes light switches, fans, the doorbell and — importantly — your mobile phone.

Do not light anything.

Open doors and windows.

Turn off the supply at the cylinder valve or the main, if you can reach it safely.

Get everybody out.

And call from outside, away from the building.

Do not go back in to check.

Prevention

Check the rubber hose regularly and replace it at the interval the manufacturer states — hoses perish and cracking is the common failure.

Turn the cylinder valve off at night and when leaving.

Keep cylinders upright and ventilated, never in a sealed cupboard or basement.

And keep the area around the stove clear of anything flammable.

Electricity

If somebody is being electrocuted

From 3.6, and it bears repeating because it is the rule people break.

Do not touch them until the power is off.

Switch off at the main. If you cannot, push them clear with something dry and non-conducting — wood, plastic — while standing on something insulating.

Never metal, never wet, never your hands.

Then check breathing and start CPR if needed (3.2).

And everybody with an electrical injury needs hospital assessment, however minor it looks, because the internal damage follows the current path and the heart rhythm can be disturbed for hours.

Downed power lines

Stay well back — many metres.

High voltage arcs, and the ground around a fallen line can be energised over a considerable distance.

Do not touch anything the line is touching — a fence, a vehicle, a tree, water.

Call the emergency services and the utility.

And if a line falls on your vehicle: stay inside. **The tyres insulate you. Get out only if there is fire, and then jump clear so you are not touching the vehicle and the ground at once, and shuffle away with both feet together.

Household electrical safety

Do not overload sockets or daisy-chain extension leads.

Replace damaged cables rather than taping them.

Use the correct fuse rating.

Have a residual current device fitted if you do not have one — it disconnects the supply within milliseconds when current leaks to earth, and it is the single most effective protection against electrocution in a home.

Keep electrics away from water.

And in a flood: turn the power off at the main before water reaches it, and never enter water in a building until the supply is confirmed off (5.4).

Carbon monoxide

The most dangerous of the three, because it gives no warning at all.

What it is

A colourless, odourless, tasteless gas produced by incomplete burning of any fuel — gas, wood, charcoal, coal, petrol, diesel, kerosene.

It binds to haemoglobin far more strongly than oxygen does, which means the blood stops carrying oxygen while the person feels only vaguely unwell.

The sources

Faulty or unventilated gas appliances, heaters and boilers.

Blocked flues and chimneys.

Charcoal or coal burned indoors — including a barbecue brought inside, or a brazier for heat, which is a recurring cause of death in cold snaps.

Generators run indoors, in a garage, or too close to a window. This is a leading cause of post-storm and post-power-cut deaths and it is entirely preventable (5.5).

And a vehicle running in an attached garage.

Recognising it

Headache, dizziness, nausea, tiredness, confusion, shortness of breath.

It is routinely mistaken for flu, food poisoning or ordinary tiredness, and that misattribution is what kills people.

The clues that distinguish it:

Several people or animals in the same building unwell at the same time.

Symptoms that improve when you leave the building and return when you come back.

And symptoms that are worse when a particular appliance is running.

Any of those three: leave and get the appliance checked.

What to do

Get everybody out into fresh air, immediately.

Open doors and windows on the way.

Turn off the appliance if you can do so instantly and safely.

Call emergency services.

And get medical attention, even if people feel better in fresh air — carbon monoxide can cause delayed neurological effects, and treatment is straightforward.

The prevention that solves it

A carbon monoxide alarm.

Cheap, battery powered, and it detects a hazard human senses cannot.

One in any room with a fuel-burning appliance, and one near sleeping areas.

Test it, and replace it at the end of its stated life — these units have a fixed lifespan, typically several years, after which the sensor degrades.

And have fuel appliances and flues serviced annually.

Never, under any circumstances, run a generator, a barbecue, a charcoal brazier or an engine indoors, in a garage, or near an open window.

The one-line versions

Gas: smell it, do not touch a switch, open up, turn off, get out, call from outside.

Electricity: power off before you touch anybody, and stay many metres from a downed line.

Carbon monoxide: several people unwell at once, or symptoms that improve when you leave — get out and get it checked.

What to do with this page

Buy a carbon monoxide alarm. It costs very little and it detects something no human sense can.

Do not touch a switch — including your phone — if you can smell gas.

Fit a residual current device if you do not have one.

Generators outdoors, well away from windows. Every season, people die of this and every one is preventable.

And if several people in a building feel unwell at once, that is the pattern. It is the tell, and almost nobody recognises it.

Next: 6.3 — road accidents, and a vehicle in water.