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    [name] => NearMiss
    [title] => A Near Miss
    [content] => <h2>A Near Miss with Badly Fitted Gas Fire</h2>

<p>"When my family and I moved into our house six years ago there was a gas fire in the living room. This had been fitted only eighteen months earlier and had, apparently, hardly been used. It was a fairly sophisticated fire as it had a remote control to turn the flame up and down. When the weather became cooler we started using the fire but I was rather disappointed that the remote control seemed to work only intermittently and I eventually gave up using it.</p>

<p>After a few nights, however, we noticed that the fire was emitting a slightly peculiar smell and a friend who stayed complained of a headache when in the room. Fortunately I decided to call in a gas engineer. It turned out that the fire had been fitted incorrectly and that the plastic box, housing the electronics within the workings of the fire that was controlled by the remote, had melted quite badly. This had caused the smell. Whether or not it had actually started leaking carbon monoxide is something I do not know as at that time we hadn’t got round to fitting a carbon monoxide alarm. (And of course carbon monoxide itself is odourless).</p>

<p>I asked the engineer if he could remove the electronics and just leave us with a basic fire. Unfortunately this was not possible and the fire had to be condemned. I found the paperwork for the installation that had been left by the previous owner and contacted the company that installed it. Not surprisingly they said it was out of guarantee and washed their hands of it.</p>

<p>Now that I know a lot more about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning I wish I had taken a far more assertive line with them and can only hope that the same mistake has not been made elsewhere. We now have a wood burning stove!"</p>

<p><strong>T.A - London</strong></p>
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