Poison gas fire mum backs safety drive (From The Bolton News)

Poison gas fire mum backs safety drive

7:54am Saturday 9th March 2013 in News

A MOTHER whose family was nearly poisoned by deadly fumes from her gas fire is backing a new safety campaign after Bolton was identified as a danger hotspot.

Research by the Gas Safe Register found that 10 per cent of fitted gas appliances in the town are unsafe, and could have resulted in gas explosions, fires, leaks or carbon monoxide poisoning if left unchecked.

Now the organisation has launched a campaign to save lives, which is being backed by Korrinne Boaro, from Smithills, who fell foul of an unregistered gas fitter when she wanted a new boiler and fire fitted in November 2011.

She is now urging householders to check gas fitters are Gas Safe registered.

Mrs Boaro said she believed that the fitter was registered, and asked for his Corgi documents, not realising that they had been replaced by the Gas Safe Register system.

The documents were never produced.

Shortly afterwards, the family said they started suffering headaches and tiredness, which are signs of potentially fatal carbon monoxide poisoning.

This went on for five months until Mrs Boaro applied for boiler cover.

Mrs Boaro, aged 52, lives with her 56- year-old partner Barry Howarth and children Nathan, aged 25, and Ananya, aged 14.

The fitter also left the house in a mess, with water leaking through a ceiling that ruined upstairs and downstairs carpets.

At one point, scalding water spurted out of the boiler which burned Nathan, who works at Bolton’s Shakespeare Foundry.

The hot water also narrowly missed her three-year-old granddaughter, Ceira.

The couple had paid nearly £2,000 for the faulty work — and have since spent the same again on repairs, new carpets, wiring and decorating.

Qualified workers later found that a flue was not installed correctly and the gas fire was not connected properly.

Mrs Boaro, a health care assistant, said: “The person who came round told me ‘I don’t know how you are still alive’.

“We could have easily been killed by the fumes, which you can’t smell.

“Thankfully the rooms have quite high ceilings and we often have the doors open.

“If we’d kept them shut, we could have died.”

Gas Safe Register chief executive Russell Kramer said: “Gas safety is a life or death matter.”

Go to silentkiller.co.uk to sign up for a free annual gas safety check reminder.