Gas safety isn’t just about this week, as John Allen from John Allen Plumbing and Heating in Derbyshire proved when he helped an elderly resident in a neighbouring property to where he was carrying out a boiler installation.

He said: “I was working at a house fitting a boiler last year when I could smell carbon coming from the adjacent property. I looked over the fence and was greeted by the flue from a 40-year-old Concorde boiler, surrounded by signs of combustion all around it. When I went to speak to the next-door neighbour, I was met by an elderly lady on a breathing apparatus who was pleased that I had explained the reason why I wanted to enter her property.

“Her boiler was in an outbuilding attached on to the house, and just below the bathroom. I used my gas analyser from a distance and quickly removed it as it was picking up 1,200ppm of carbon monoxide (CO). That amount of CO seeping under the floor in the bathroom is very dangerous, so I explained the situation to the homeowner and capped off the gas supply to the boiler. The neighbour then had a new boiler fitted under a grant scheme.”