This report is an analysis of gas incidents reported to EnergySafety over a ten year period from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2014.
The distribution of gas across Western Australia is varied in terms of reticulated natural gas (NG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and bottled LPG.
There were 817 gas related incidents reported in the ten years from 2004/05 to 2013/14. Of these, 74% were related to gas utilisation and 26% to gas supply. Overall gas supply incidents recorded by EnergySafety have shown a higher safety outcome as compared to gas utilisation.
Analysis of workplace and non-workplace incidents indicates that gas supply had more workplace incidents in comparison to gas utilisation where a higher number of incidents occurred in a non- workplace setting.
There were four fatal incidents which resulted in six fatalities over the reporting period. The nature of gas incidents can result in multiple fatalities as was the case in 2006/07 when an incident involving a camping stove being used indoors resulted in the death of 3 people.
There was a fatality in 2013/14 in which the victim was alleged to have been using LPG during the manufacture of an illegal substance. A fire and explosion resulted causing the victim to sustain burns and later succumbed to his injuries.
There were 16 incidents which resulted in serious injury in 2013/14 bringing the total number of incidents in this category to 73 since 2004/05.
There were 107 incidents which resulted in minor injury during the reporting period. 13 such incidents occurred in 2013/14.