Dear LPG,

Here is a little but important tail that needs to be told, but let me tell you a bit about myself to start with...

I am a pensioner and I am also blind but I have learned to cope and I am quite content with my life.  I live alone in a flat but have regular visitors and I get out and about in spite of my blindness although I do spend quite a bit of time at home alone.

I know what to expect when the smoke alarm goes off and, as is often said of people who lose the use of one of their senses, I am typical because all the others are much more acute.  Perhaps because I am blind and live in a council flat,   my alarms are checked regularly which is assuring.

A few weeks ago I was at home one evening when an alarm that I did not recognise went off.   I seem to be able to hear where sounds in my flat are coming from and I knew that this sound was not from my smoke alarm.   I have link line and called them and eventually established that it was my carbon monoxide alarm that was making the sound.  It was necessary to disconnect my Gas cooker, and central heating while they isolated the problem but without it I could have been quite ill very quickly and I smelled nothing. 

That is the end of the story, but I want to remind readers of the moral which is please make sure you have one of each in your home, get them checked regularly and remember that carbon monoxide is an odourless gas but can still be lethal.   

PB, Forest Hill

LPG can only thank PB for bringing this very important point to our attention.  As emphasised in the post, Carbon monoxide is the result of the natural gas that we now use to power our domestic heating and cooking appliances, and it is completely odourless to the most sensitive of noses.  This is so often one of those things that you are definitely going to get sorted but that keeps getting relegated to the bottom of your ‘to do list’.   It is often the case that both smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are neglected when it comes to maintenance.  Please remember the importance of checking the batteries in them. 

We checked with You Tube and found a little information on the sounds that these alarms make; not only when they go off but when they are trying to warn that their batteries are running low, but as usual most of the information online is from the USA.   The London fire brigade’s website informs, ‘If you believe there is danger from gas contact the Gas Emergency Helpline on 0800 111 999’. 

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