What to Do If You Smell Gas at Home
A suspected gas leak is not a fault to investigate yourself. The priority is to get everyone away from possible danger and contact the appropriate emergency service. Once you know what to do first, you can avoid actions that might create an risk of starting a fire or causing an explosion or delay help.
Leave the property and call from outside
If you smell gas, or suspect a leak for another reason, get everyone out of the building. Do not stay inside to find the source, check the boiler or look for a meter reading. Take people and pets with you, and do not re-enter until the emergency service says it is safe.
Call the National Gas Emergency Service from outside the property, or from a safe place away from it. Explain that you can smell gas and give the address and any details you can provide without going back inside. Follow the instructions you are given. If anyone feels unwell, seek urgent medical help as well.
Do not assume the danger has passed because the smell becomes faint or disappears. The smell alone cannot tell you where gas is escaping from, how much may be present or whether the property is safe. Let the emergency service assess the situation.
What not to do inside
Avoid anything that could create a flame or spark. Do not smoke, light matches or use lighters. Do not operate lights, switches, plugs, electrical appliances or a doorbell in the affected area. Do not use a phone inside the property. Leave first, then make calls from outside.
Do not try to repair a pipe, boiler or gas appliance, and do not remove covers or adjust components. Even if you have found what seems to be the cause, it may not be the only issue. Only a suitably qualified professional should work on gas pipes or connections. Our Gas Safe registration is relevant to that work, but it does not replace the emergency service’s role in dealing with an immediate suspected leak.
If someone is still inside, tell them to leave without operating electrical equipment or stopping to collect belongings. Keep others away from the building while help is being arranged.
Should you open windows or turn off the gas?
Advice can depend on where the smell is and whether a control is safely accessible. Do not search for a window, meter or isolation valve if doing so means staying inside, moving towards the suspected leak or delaying your exit. Do not take risks to ventilate the property or shut off the supply.
If you already know where the gas meter’s shut-off valve is and can reach it without entering a suspected danger area, the emergency service may advise you to turn it off. Follow their instructions rather than relying on a guess about which valve to use. Do not turn the supply back on yourself after it has been shut off.
When to call a heating engineer
Contact a heating engineer after the immediate situation has been assessed and the emergency service has said it is safe for further work. This is the point to have a boiler or heating fault checked, not while gas may still be escaping. Tell the engineer what happened and what the emergency service advised. Do not restart an appliance unless you have been told it is safe to do so.
A gas smell does not automatically mean the boiler itself is the source. The issue could involve another gas appliance or part of the installation, so avoid assuming that resetting the boiler will solve it. If the emergency service has turned off the gas, leave it off until a qualified person has assessed the situation and advised on the next step.
For households in Hemel Hempstead and nearby areas, we provide Emergency Heating Call-Outs for urgent heating faults once the immediate gas emergency has been dealt with. Here at Abbotts Boiler Services, we can help with the heating side of the problem, while the National Gas Emergency Service should be your first contact when you suspect a leak.
