Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Food outlets in gas safety test
Takeaways face crackdown
BELFAST City Council is cracking down on gas safety in takeaways across the city.
It has asked hundreds of hot food outlets to provide proof their systems are properly looked after.
The authority has demanded 400 business owners return maintenance records, including evidence appropriate Gas Safe Registered installers carried out the work.
The documents must be sent to the council by October 1. The last similar check on takeaways was carried out in 2015.
The move, which coincides with Gas Safety Week, comes after an explosion in a newly-opened restaurant in Ballyhackamore, East Belfast, in which one person was injured.
There was a major emergency response to the blast, which witnesses said “sounded like a car bomb” and which left the building with extensive damage.
Gas industry insiders said there was a spike in demand for their services as a result of the letters and warned shoddy practice by poorly-trained engineers meant many appliances are “accidents waiting to happen”.
One senior engineer told the
Standards of work and installation can be scary and dangerous ENGINEER YESTERDAY
Mirror he had come across dozens of places during his working day where lives were at risk because of dangerously installed equipment.
He said: “I have been in restaurants where the gas cooker is literally like a bomb with the fuse lit.
“The standards of gas work and installations can be scary and dangerous.
“This is Gas Safety Week but have we heard much about it? The industry needs properly and expertly policed or lives will be lost.
“We should not have to wait until there is an accident and somebody else is killed before action is taken.”
A Belfast City Council spokeswoman said: “We undertake this activity on a regular basis and this phase focuses on hot food/takeaway type business operators but we intend to write to all food businesses as we continue to roll out the programme.”