The gas chamber

It was back in February that I first wrote about our neighbour leaving his gas on, and us being able to smell it in the house.

I stayed up late tonight, having fallen asleep in front of the TV and then not being tired by the time I came upstairs. After writing a couple of blogs and some emails I decided it was time for bed around 1.30am. Walking into our bedroom I was hit by the obvious smell of gas once again. After our last experience I knew immediately what was going on, but 1.30 in the morning! What to do? I didn't feel I could go banging on his door alone, but I knew I couldn't leave it until after sunrise. By that time the concentration of gas in his house could have reached dangerous levels where even turning on a light can cause an explosion.

I called the emergency gas helpline. The programmed text that their operators have to go through involves turning off *our* gas supply, which I refused to do - knowing that it's not us with the problem. The engineers guarantee to be at the property within an hour, so I woke Nikki gently and explained the situation, and we sat drinking (decaf!) coffee in the study until I heard a knock at the door (they won't ring the bell in case of sparks!) around ten past two. As before it took a moment only to check that our supply was gas tight, after which we walked over to next door. The gas man pushed his probe through the letter box.

The machine didn't howl, but the reading must have indicated something significant enough for him to knock on the door and shout through the letter box. "Step away from the property sir," he instructed me. "We don't know how much gas there is in there, and if he turns a light on it might go pop."

It took three attempts at knocking and shouting before our neighbour came to the door. The gas man headed off for the kitchen while I explained why we were there. He's confused enough at the best of times let alone having been roused from his bed at past 2am. The gas man shone his torch at the cooker with the words "...and sure enough..."

Yes, one of the gas burners left on again, unlit. The man must have no sense of smell at all. I could hardly breathe and I was only stood in the hall. So this is the second time in as many months, despite his son assuring us that he doesn't do it "very often." I think I'll be making another phone call tomorrow.