OT: House inflation

How common are gas explosions (compared to the number of houses with gas) in any case? And what causes them? Is it negligence or arson?

We never seem to hear any follow-up. Could do with a TV documentary (or a series).

I had wondered whether someone might have tried to bypass the meter but having had a look at mine, I just can?t see how you would do that in a way that wasn?t obvious.

It?s a council estate where fuel poverty could be very real for some residents.

Tim

The construction of the house would have been a factor.

Well it?s in a staggered terrace so I guess that would increase the pressure on the roof, front and back walls.

Nope. It's the proportion of gas mixed with air that's the issue. --

"In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property."

- The Communist Manifesto, Marx & Engels.

Perhaps it wasn't gas ...

And possibly that instead of being in just one room, the gas/air mixture had diffused throughout the house.

It's possible that nobody was at home in the totally-demolished house, and the casualties were next door.

probably trialling out Bojos new 'hydrogen exconnery'

I delt with two during my time in Building Standards ......nice mess both of them.....

I remember a bungalow exploding near here. There was nothing left more than 18" high - and it was uninsured ... the new owners having only bought it two days earlier and not got around to insuring it!

It's actually fairly rare. Natural gas has quite a narrow mixture band in which it will explode, so even when there is a leak, the chances are that it is detected well before it gets into that band or that it gets out of that band before being exposed to any ignition source.

The devil is in the detail. It took out one corner leaving the roof unstable. My guess would be an unusually large quantity of gas trapped in the bottom corner room by closed doors, and ignition when the mixture was just right (or perhaps I mean wrong). Also looks like a relatively modern house, so perhaps not as much structural redundancy as in older property.

Look again ... yes it took out one corner of a neighbouring house, but it completely blew away the house itself where the explosion occurred, like *gone*

While gas explosions don?t seem that common they do tend to destroy they house and sometimes neighbouring ones.

Tim+ snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

More likely how far the gas had spread in the house.

I was thinking more of the quality of the build, which could lead to the walls being relatively weak, rather than the layout. However, it does seem to have taken out the common wall with the other centre house.

Of course, it is not just the initial blast that does the damage. That is followed by air rushing in to fill the vacuum it created, which can do even more damage to already weakened structures.

Oops yes. It's taken out all of the "exposed" walls. Same basic point, though, it's flattened the structure because it has taken out all the structural support and gravity took over. A sort of explosion, but really just a big "whoof". High explosive, like a 1000 kg bomb, would have left something more like a crater, at least if it exploded at (or below) ground level.

Now then, about those government plans to use hydrogen...

(2% to 80% in air is explosive IIRC)

Andy