Gas has been left on over night without flame on gas mark 7

[mam1998]

Hi just panicking as the oven gas has been left on all night without flame on gas mark seven.... don't know what to do. I've woke up with a headache and feeling sick but I don't know if it's just coincidence

That's incorrect.

The OP is presumably talking about natural gas, which is mostly methane and less dense than air.

You're thinking of propane or butane, the types in canisters - they're the ones that can be a problem accumulating if they leak in boats etc

Genuine question - what will the gas emergency line do above telling the OP to open all the windows for a few hours?

i assume that, before you came online asking for advice, you did all the usual things like, turn off the gas? open the windows? get out of the house? phoned 111 or your GP for advice?

Depending on the quantity of gas coming out of op's windows and how close to the road the property is, they may need to make an exclusion zone around the property (imagine someone walking past her open windows with a lit cigarette). I don't know if there will be enough gas for this to be needed, but that's for an expert to decide.

They will also be able to advise if op and her 3 year old need medical checks, and how long the property needs to air for before it is safe to re-enter.

@mam1998 do you smell gas?? the gas cookers nowadays have a safety feature whereby if there is no flame then the gas will not come out the holes! just open the windows and door. ventilate the house and you will be fine.

Turn the appliance off. Open all windows and doors to ventilate the house thoroughly.

That should do it, but call the gas emergency hotline as given above to check for further advice.

I would definitely ring 111 for advice, especially regarding the three-year-old that can be a delayed response

When this happened to me, a man came out and waved his gas detector around various rooms and confirmed firstly that there wasn’t enough gas for there to be a risk of explosion and secondly how long I needed to be out of the house for that amount of gas to disperse.

I opened all the windows and left the house

@CandidHedgehog how long did he tell you to keep out of the house for? X

Have you called the emergency gas number?? Get off MN and do it!

It's not just your house and your family at risk, what about your neighbours?

He said 3 or 4 hours but that was based on the amount of gas detected. I’d already had the windows open a couple of hours by the time he arrived.

A lot depends on how much gas was in the house to begin with.

I agree with PPs you should call the gas emergency line. I wasn’t charged anything and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

She really doesn’t.

What is stopping you doingvThe only thing that will ensure the safety of your family and yourself? It’s free and it will take less time than reading these posts giving you random bits of information about houses that are not yours.

Why not? That’s what I was told you are supposed to do - confirmed by the person they sent out when I did!

You should ring the gas emergency helpline number that someone has quoted above and then you should ring NHS 111 and ask for medical advice. Your 3 year old in particular should be checked over.

How did you not smell it?

Switch gas off at the main cut off, it's usually a big handle by the metre.
Do not switch anything on or plug anything in. Do not light a cigarette or use a vape or anything else that gets hot.

Open all doors and windows wide as you can. Go outside and stay out there until you stop feeling sick and the headache recedes.

If you cannot smell gas, which it sounds like you can't as the smell would be overpowering, get a neighbour to go in and sniff and confirm no gas smell before you go back in. Keep windows and doors open as long as possible.

Get any young babies checked out by a doctor if they seem in any way not right. Actually I'd get them checked out anyway.

For a leak. In this situation there is nothing they can do. OP left it on overnight, it isn't leaking. There is nothing to fix. All there is to do is switch it off and air the house which OP is already doing.

People above have already explained this:

@Sprogonthetyne Depending on the quantity of gas coming out of op's windows and how close to the road the property is, they may need to make an exclusion zone around the property (imagine someone walking past her open windows with a lit cigarette). I don't know if there will be enough gas for this to be needed, but that's for an expert to decide.
They will also be able to advise if op and her 3 year old need medical checks, and how long the property needs to air for before it is safe to re-enter.

It's not about 'fixing' it's about ensuring no one in the surrounding area (all of whom are unaware there's even an issue other than the OP) does anything that could inadvertently cause an explosion. Assuming the gas has been on since yesterday tea time so 15+ hours, that could be quite a bit.

The OP is clearly clueless and unable to make a judgement on whether or not the level of gas is a safety risk herself - sorry but true from going on MN rather than calling the emergency gas number...

Why wouldn't you just call them for peace of mind. It may be absolutely fine but at least then you'd know. I'd also tell my immediate neighbours so they could be vigilant.
What if your next door neighbour lit a bonfire. Very unlikely but not impossible. If this was my neighbour I would want to know and I would leave my house just to be on the safe side.

Maybe time to check if it's got flame failure devices for each ring. And if they work.

Maybe time for a new hob? We changed both my Mum's and my MIL's to induction ones after a few burnt tea towel incidents.

To add to the switching electrical devices in a gas filled room advice.....

Don't switch them ON or OFF. Switching EITHER way can produce a spark that could ignite the gas/air mixture.

hopefully you called and they came out. a neighbour of ours cut through the gas pipe and we all had to evacuate. the whole cul de sac stank to high heaven. Fire brigade, police and gas engineers everywhere.

If you do have a gas leak you should not even switch on a light - that spark alone can cause an explosion.

Yes. Except she didn’t have a gas leak. If it was serious they would have been overcome by the fumes and/or exploded. That fact it was a minimal smell and little to no symptoms after being on all night means the right approach was to turn the oven off and open the windows and leave for an hour or two until there is no more smell, as the more common sense people have responded.

It's the next day and we're all fine, we went into our family's for the day as they only live a few doors down as didn't wanna go far with leaving back door open. But I just left all the windows open and aired it out, plus it's been extremely windy so all is fine. Thank you for responses.