“If there was any hint of danger, no one from the Fire Service would have left the scene"

Wednesday 14 December 2022

A retired firefighter with more than three decades of experience has said that his former colleagues would only leave the scene of a suspected gas leak when they were sure it was safe.

Mick Stevens, who is also a former honorary police officer, said he was very pleased that it had been made clear by the head of Islands Energy that an engineer had been called to Haut du Mont on Friday evening by the Fire Service, thus following standard procedure.

Around 04:00 on Saturday morning there was a major explosion at the site, following what the Police Chief later said was "likely" to be a gas leak. So far, the Police have confirmed that seven islanders were killed.

“I appreciate that I have been retired for 20 years but it was always standard practice at any incident where gas is smelt and there is a suspected leak that the gas company is called and both services would attend," Mr Stevens told Express. 

“If there was any hint of danger, no one from the Fire Service would have left the scene. In my 34 years of service, we never left an area until we were assured it was safe.

“In my experience, the gas company had the specialist detection devices to trace the gas and asses the level, and the Fire Service was there for safety cover.

“It was always the case that once the gas company assessed the area to be safe, subject to all the proper testing, then the incident was handed over to them.”

He added: “I’ve attended many suspected gas leaks and it’s important to say that gas can become untraceable very quickly. It wafts in and out in seconds so can be difficult to detect.”

Mr Stevens stressed that he could only comment as a former firefighter but it was important to say that the service followed well-established policies and procedures. 

Speaking earlier this week, Islands Energy Group confirmed that the housing block was not connected to mains gas, but gas engineers had worked recently at the site.

CEO Jo Cox said that there were no issues with the mains gas network and the area was safe. She added that it was not certain that gas caused the blast and, while an explosion of that magnitude was typically gas, that had not been determined.

“We want to join everyone in Jersey in sending our thoughts and prayers to the families who have lost families during this tragic time. Islands Energy continues to work with the emergency services during this recovery period," she said.

“I want to reassure people that we believe this is an isolated incident and not an issue with our gas network. 

“We will work with the emergency services and the various channels to ensure we are providing the data needed to understand exactly what happened during this incident.”

(PIC CREDIT: Jon Guegan/JEP)