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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent

Risk of deadly gas blasts rising as cash-strapped UK homeowners skip checks

Emergency services work at the scene in Dulwich Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham, after a gas explosion that killed 79-year-old woman Doreen Rees-Bibb.
Emergency services work at the scene in Dulwich Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham, after a gas explosion that killed a 79-year-old woman last Sunday. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The risk of catastrophic gas blasts is being heightened by cash-strapped homeowners skipping checks for potentially deadly faults, safety experts have warned.

Cookers, fires and boilers left unchecked can cause leaks, which “lead to fires and explosions that cost lives and shatter neighbourhoods,” said Bob Kerr, the gas services director at Gas Safe Register.

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