Hi Nigel,
What a terrible, tragic story about the couple who had the gas explosion.

I was over in Torrecilla, a small village in Aragon last Wednesday with a client. We met in the village bar for a coffee, and there were lots of Guardia Civil and many TV camera crews around.

Apparently there had been an awful fire during the night in one of the traditional stone town houses. One of those portable gas bottle heaters had ignited the curtains in a bedroom. Three very young children died in the blaze, a two year old and 6 month old twins.

I personally think this style of heater is a death trap, a friend of mine was drying some washing around one of these and it also caught fire. If it had been during the night when they were all asleep, it could quite easily have been another tragic story.

Your article about the dangers of these heaters and appliances is very informative, and i hope that people take heed and follow the instructions, myself i wouldn't give them house room.

Jools

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An emotive subject but I think the last quote of Nigels sums it all up,surely human error and lack of commonsense is the major cause of ALL accidents.To place an open fire next to curtains and washing is an accident waiting to happen.To say that these incidents are the fault of the gas fire(assuming it was checked and working properly) is rather a sweeping statement,in the same context,hundreds maybe thousands of people are stabbed each year but are all knives dangerous.

Nigel,I've sent you a PM

Ian 

The 'quick fix' is not far off a 'quick make the problem worse'.  The reason is that burning gas generates 3 main components; 1. heat (which we want) 2. Water (which makes the room damp) 3. Fumes (which can kill).

Typically running a gas heater for 5 hours generates 3 pints of water. If your room isn't well ventilated then this water will condensate on the walls/ceilings/windows and you will end up with black mould growing everywhere - not very healthy! The moisture in the air will make the room feel cold and damp so the temptation is to run the heater more.

If the room isn't well ventilated then you will also be increasing the amount of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and reducing the oxygen - this will make you drowsy and often gives people headaches. Sometimes the build up of carbon monoxide kills.

As time goes on more people are fitting central heating which doesn't have these problems as it is a dry heat. Also almost all of the air conditioning units sold now are combined cooling and heating (Bomba de Calor) and these are also a safe form of heating. Lastly the traditional wood burner is also a reasonably safe form of heating - just remember to keep the chimney swept!

Nigel