Are gas explosion fears justified?
By Tom Warren BBC News Fires on sites where acetylene gas canisters are stored are causing major disruption in towns and cities across England, evidence suggests. But why is it happening and what can be done to prevent it? In October last year more than 1,100 people in Sussex, Gloucestershire and Birmingham evacuated their properties following fires at sites where acetylene cylinders were thought to be stored. Hundreds in Sussex ended up sleeping at a holiday camp. In November, 150 people in Poole, Dorset, were told to leave their homes and spend the night in a community centre after a garage containing the gas was set alight. A week later fire crews in Hyde, Manchester, closed the A57 as a precaution following a fire in a car showroom where cylinders were kept. And in January this year dozens of homes were evacuated in Wokingham, Berkshire, after another fire in a garage where acetylene was stored. These incidents are a snapshot of the disruption related to acetylene in recent months.
