Plumber fined over a faulty boiler that did THIS!
For eight months, it was held together by paste used to prepare it for connection. Eventually it separated, releasing gas into Robin and Marion Cunningham’s bungalow in Callander, Perthshire.
At 5.45am on March 28, 2013, the flammable atmosphere ignited, possibly sparked by the flicking of a light switch, ‘totally demolishing’ the property.
Mr Cunningham, now 81, and his 79-year-old wife were trapped in the rubble. Nine nearby homes had to be evacuated.
At Stirling Sheriff Court in December, A PLUMBER was fined £3,000 yesterday over a faulty boiler that caused a gas explosion in an elderly couple’s home. Craig Hall, 35, left a gas pipe liable to come loose by failing to solder a joint. Hall, of Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, was found guilty of installing the boiler ‘other than in accordance with appropriate standards and in such a way to prevent danger’ by failing to ensure the gas supply pipe was properly joined to the gas inlet pipe.
Yesterday, Sheriff William Gilchrist said he had committed ‘an act a person exercising reasonable care would not have committed’.
He added: ‘Thankfully, the residents were not killed – but they could have been and the consequences for them have been very serious.’
The couple were pulled from the wreckage by firefighters. Mr Cunningham was taken by air ambulance to Glasgow Royal Infirmary with burns to his head, face and hands. His wife had less serious injuries but has been left ‘frail and very anxious’.
In determining sentence, Sheriff Gilchrist said he had taken into account the fact the accused had ‘a good health and safety record’ and no relevant previous convictions.
Hall still works for the same company, Stirling-based TRS Plumbing and Heating Services, and was promoted two years ago to manager.
Mr and Mrs Cunningham’s teacher daughter Lynn said her parents had been ‘utterly overwhelmed by finding everything that’s familiar suddenly disappears’.
She added: ‘They didn’t have the ability to put their lives back together again – it was too much.’