kerosene leak

Nothing to do with me, just interested in a topic that I overheard=20 recently due to the costs - just over 100 litres were allegedly=20 "lost" due to damage to pipework over a period of a month or so, but a=20 claim has gone in for over =A330,000 for damages (!)

Apparently the owner is claiming for damage to the fabric of the=20 building (the bulk of the cost I believe) amongst other things, but=20 sounds on the high side to me...

How far away are these tanks normally from habitable buildings ?

Does it evaporate, or would it pool and need to be pumped away ?

Would the ground be classed as contaminated, and have to be removed=20 for specialist disposal ?

As a sideline question to the above, the damage happened while it was=20 pi$$ing down in the height of summer last year - how long would it=20 normally take to use ~100 litres of it for heating in crap weather ?

Reply to
Colin Wilson
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Sounds like one for the insurance company lawyers to argue about.

There are now regulations on tank siting but a great number of older tanks are right against habitable buildings.

It does evaporate, it's only paraffin after all, but it doesn't do so particularly quickly or completely.

Yes.

Crap weather in summer even up here (1400' and exposed) rarely requires the heating to come on. Thus that leaves just hot water and as a *rough* estimate I would expect 100l to last 4 weeks or so. In winter, windy and cold (daytime maxes only just above freezing) 100l would be about 4 days...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Oh yes. Ner neighbour had an underfloor leak and lst 500 liters of heating oil.

Ibsurance insisted on a complete floor removal, and digging out of teh enitere ground floor, ans well as a cinsiderable quantity of outside soil.

Took 18 months, and the bill was IIRC somewhere areound £100k, plus renatl of alternative acom.

I spilt a few gallons of diesel once. Killed the grass and smelt the whole summer. Its all fine now...

few weeks mebbe.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Depends upon the specific situation. Could be trying it on or could be genuine. Kerosene in topsoil in a garden - keep digging it up and allow it to evaporate and bugs to degrade it. Kerosene leak through into a trench in which a water supply pipe is laid or into very porous soil rock over a private abstraction well for potable supply - then big costs could be anticipated!

Reply to
Clot

Had a leak at work a few years ago. Several hundred litres. We were notified by EA (or perhaps WA, I can't remember which) when it polluted a river a mile or more away (must have got into land drains). BIG costs!.

Reply to
<me9

Yes, I can understand that.As I said, it depends upon the specific location. Also circumstance. BTGTTS.

Reply to
Clot

Thanks for the replies guys, it could be interesting to hear the=20 outcome, but sadly it's one i'm unlikely to ever find out :-}

Reply to
Colin Wilson

Elfin safety decrees that a car that has been in a flood has to be scrapped, as well.

Society pays a heavy price for replacing intelligence by rules, at all levels.

Every time something goes worong,the raction these days is 'what rules did I break?' not 'where did my failure to actually understand what was happening cause this mess?'

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Cite?

Ian

Reply to
The Real Doctor

No it doesn't.

Customer demand for something where the electrics actually work and the carpets don't stink does.

Try not to let your obsessions blind you to cases where they aren't relevant.

clive

Reply to
Clive George

Ny BILs car was scrapped as the insurers refused to let it be fixed. It was pretty new too.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yes, and?

What reason did they give? I bet it wasn't "health and safety".

Did your BIL offer to buy the scrap vehicle off the insurers?

clive

Reply to
Clive George

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember The Natural Philosopher saying something like:

More likely they know from experience the car will never be right and mysterious electrical gremlins and smells will plague it for the rest of its existence, thus causing them extra grief and expense.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Wouldn't let it be fixed ... or wouldn't pay for it to be fixed? Which category of write-off was it?

Ian

Reply to
The Real Doctor

He's incoherent at the best of times, but he muttered something about 'any car thats been in a flood and got water inside can't be insured or resold: health and safety'

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember The Natural Philosopher saying something like:

I suspect he's talking bollocks.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

If you thought that that was bollocks, I have a story from this past week, also involving kerosene.

I was taking a BA flight from Heathrow T4 to Amsterdam and the typical incompetence took place involving a coach to a remote stand with steps up to the plane. In front of me on the steps was a woman with two small children, one about three and the other probably just over a year who she was carrying. In the other hand she was carrying a collapsible stroller - not one of the bulky ones with the big wheels. She also had some kind of disability with a leg and I suspect a caliper by the way she was walking. At any rate, there were four or five BA ground staff milling around at the bottom of the steps and two flight crew including CSD at the top. The lady was really struggling with all of this and took quite a time to climb the steps. None of the BA staff made the slightest effort to help. I had my hands full and couldn't do anything because there were several people behind me. Another passenger behind me went to put his bag down by the steps so that he could help and was told that he couldn't. "Security".

Once on board, I asked the CSD why none of the BA staff made any effort to help. "Policy. Health and Safety".

I wrote to Mr Walsh and Mr Noyes this morning.

Reply to
Andy Hall

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Hall saying something like:

They really are priceless at times. "Ooh, ooh, I might hurt my back doing my job."

Big cheeses at BA, I assume?

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Well the CSD did remind me of John Inman

CEO and Director of Customer Service

Reply to
Andy Hall

I was told by a garage owner that the insurers write the cars off because of potential future liability problems.

If just one repaired car caught fire (electrical problems after flooding), or just one car owner had health problems suspected to be or due to contamination in the carpets etc - the potential future liability could be huge.

Write all the cars off now and you have a capped, definitive liability... or save some money now but have a potential, future unknown liability possibly far higher.

I suspect also that if you added the costs of replacement looms, carpets, seats and miscellaneous upholstery together, then factored in what would probably be a huge wait for parts, with a hire car to the owner whilst waiting, that you probably wouldn't be far off the value of the average written off car? Dunno, just a guess.

Hth Someone

Reply to
somebody

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