Raising awareness of the silent killer
Connaught Academy has recently been at the forefront of promoting the dangers associated with Carbon monoxide poisioning. This has seen Connaught Academy featuring in the ITV news and also the BBC Wales Programme X-Ray, as well as radio and press interviews.
In the Uk around 20 people die each year from Carbon monoxide posioing with hundreds suffering lesser effects of poisioning. Recent studies have indicated that around two thirds of these events could have been avoided if the gas appliance had been serviced by a competant CORGI engineer within the last year.
Connaught Academy assisted in the filming of the BBC X-RAY programme to highlight the dangers of unqualified gas engineers working on home appliances. The programme focussed on an awareness campaign to householders advising them in what they should be looking for on engineers CORGI registration cards. This campaign was launched because of the death of a teenager from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Highlighted within the report was the case of a recent incident in Cwmbran South Wales. This incident highlighted that consumers must not only check for CORGI registration but also that the engineer is qualified in the area of work. Each engineer has an ID card and on the reverse a listing of all areas of qualification. Also upon the card is a unique ID number that can be checked at the CORGI website
Never employ an unregistered installer to carry out any kind of gas work, and always check their qualifications. Below is one incident from the X-ray report.
Alex Mitchell died of carbon monoxide poisoning in her own home on Good Friday 2005 - she was 14 years old.
It all started back in 2004 when her mother, Anne Mitchell from Cwmbran, began renovating her house. She wanted a new central heating fire boiler and a new flueless gas fire. Not someone to take chances, Anne called in a CORGI registered fitter.
CORGI is the national watchdog for gas safety. If you want to work with gas legally you have to be registered with them.
So, when Anne employed CORGI registered Scott Stuart to fit the fire she believed his registration meant he was fully qualified to do the job.
A few months later Anne came home from work as usual. She was in a rush as she'd promised to take Alex to buy some concert tickets for her birthday.
When she walked into her home it felt hot, and she had a feeling something was wrong. She opened the windows and was calling out to her daughter. She went upstairs and found Alex lying dead on her bedroom floor. It was a devastating sight.
What Anne Mitchell didn't know was that Scott Stuart should never have fitted the fire that killed Alex - he wasn't qualified. And this was no one-off. Even though he wasn't qualified to fit fires, Scott Stuart accepted jobs to fit them in other homes too.
The investigation into Alex's death revealed that he'd incorrectly installed two other gas fires elsewhere. In one other case he incorrectly fitted pipes that could have led to a gas leak.
But in Alex's case the failure was much more serious. Scott Stuart had failed to carry out a basic safety test on gas pressure. The test ia a legal requirement and takes only two minutes. It would have revealed the fire was faulty and therefore a death-trap.
Hugh Emment, an Health and Safety Inspector who assisted in the investigation said:
"This check is a fundamental safety check that all gas installers have from the very first time they start their training and it's a thing that's routinely done on all appliances that either they install or do gas work on. A basic error with unfortunate results. Very tragic."
Anne Mitchell had no idea that Scott Stuart wasn't qualified. She'd seen gas safety adverts and believed that by employing a CORGI registered fitter she'd done everything she could to protect her family.
What Anne didn't realise was that CORGI registration does not mean a fitter is qualified to work on all gas appliances. There are in fact different levels of registration and they are only shown on the back of the CORGI card.
Even though Scott Stuart was registered to fit central heating, he wasn't registered to work on gas fires- so gas fires would not have been listed on the back of his card.
Anne didn't see the card and took Scott Stuart's word that as a CORGI registered fitter he knew what he was doing.
When sentencing Scott Stuart the judge said he too had been in the dark about CORGI registration and believed more should be done to make the public aware.
When questioned about this, Simon Ayers, Head of Operations at CORGI told us:
"We will work with everybody and we take on board the comments of the case, and we will be promoting wherever we can, so that work categories are something that people start to recognise."
But, for Anne Mitchell and her daughter Alex it's too late. As well as calling on CORGI and the HSE to improve public awareness of the different levels of CORGI registration, Ann Mitchell is also calling on the government to make it compulsory to fit a carbon monoxide detector every time any gas appliance is installed or maintained. They cost around £25 and the alarm goes off just like a smoke detector. You can purchase these alarms from CORGI or any large DIY store
Remember - make sure that you check that CORGI registration before anyone works on gas in your home. To check a fitter's registration details you can call CORGI on 0800 915 0480, or on their website at CORGI FINDINSTALLER
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