Smell gas? Do this now
This one's short because in a gas emergency you shouldn't be reading a long article. If you can smell gas now, do the steps below, then come back for the detail.
Do this, in this order
- Don't operate anything electrical — no light switches on or off, no plugs, no doorbells.
- Put out naked flames and don't smoke.
- Open doors and windows to ventilate.
- If you can reach it safely, turn the gas off at the meter — the emergency control valve handle turned a quarter turn so it sits across the pipe.
- Get everyone out of the property.
- From outside, call the National Gas Emergency line: 0800 111 999. It's free, staffed 24/7, and they attend within the hour for uncontrolled escapes.
What happens next
The emergency engineer's job is to make the property safe — usually by isolating the supply or the faulty appliance. They don't carry out repairs. Once the property is made safe, a Gas Safe registered engineer (that's where we come in) finds and fixes the fault, and reinstates the supply.
Never try to find or repair a gas leak yourself, and never turn the supply back on after an emergency isolation — that must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.