Serious injury

Non-fatal gas incidents have been classified into two groups, those causing serious injury requiring hospitalisation and those causing minor injury. Figure 6 below shows the number of incidents resulting in serious injury per million population. Trends indicate an increase in incidents reported in this area.

Figure 6

Serious injury per million population

The majority of incidents resulting in serious injury involved cookers, recreational equipment (predominately barbeques) and water heaters.

Unsafe installation was identified as a major cause of incidents involving cookers and component failure/design fault in recreational equipment. Incidents involving water heaters resulted mainly from improper use of the unit.

One incident in 2014/15 caused serious injury to four people. The incident involved a lunchbox gas cooker with a butane canister which exploded during use. A safety issue with such cookers has been highlighted by EnergySafety. More information is available on the Division’s website discouraging the use of cookers which have been prohibited from sale and use.