The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Man charged over blast that buried pensioners
COURT: Plumber denies causing gas explosion
A plumber is to face trial accused of causing a gas explosion that obliterated an elderly couple’s home and buried them beneath the rubble.
Craig Hall is said to have failed to install a boiler properly at Robin and Marion Cunningham’s house in Callander, Perthshire.
It is alleged Hall, 34, failed to ensure a gas pipe was properly supported when he fitted the combi boiler at their home in Murdiston Avenue.
As a consequence, it is alleged, the supply pipe separated from the inlet pipe of the boiler, to which it should have been joined, allowing gas to escape.
Eight months after Hall carried out the work, the property was completely destroyed in a massive blast.
At 5.45am on August 2 2013, the escaped gas ignited – possibly when Mr Cunningham went to make his wife a cup of tea – resulting in the explosion that ripped through the property.
Mr and Mrs Cunningham were both trapped and had to be freed by firefighters.
Mr Cunningham, then 77, was taken by air ambulance to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow with a back injury and burns.
Mrs Cunningham, then 74, was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary with less serious injuries.
Nine nearby houses were evacuated and Stirling Council set up a rest centre in Callander as emergency services moved in to make the area safe.
At Stirling Sheriff Court yesterday, Hall, of Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, pleaded not guilty, through his solicitor, to causing the blast by carrying out the installation of the boiler dangerously and otherwise than in accordance with appropriate standards, contrary to the Gas Safety (Installations and Use) Regulations 1988.
He also denied an alternative charge, under the Health and Safety at Work Act, of failing to take reasonable care for Mr and Mrs Cunningham’s safety as a result of his “acts or omissions”.
Sheriff Christopher Shead set trial for August 2, with a pre-trial review on July 4.