Boiler scare has left us frightened to stay in our home

12:31pm Thursday 26th July 2007

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A YOUNG mum says she is too scared to return to her Hampshire home after she and her family had a lucky escape.

Sara-Ann Hearn, 29, her partner Liam Twose, 26, and their 11-month-old daughter Chloe were all taken to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital after they were woken up by a carbon monoxide alarm at their council maisonette in Trussell Crescent, Winchester.

Mr Twose, who works for a furniture wholesaler, was kept in for five hours after doctors found a higher than normal level of carbon monoxide in his blood stream.

Miss Hearn and Chloe were all right, although the mum had high blood pressure.

The couple, who believe the home's boiler was to blame for the incident, say they were "fobbed off" by Winchester City Council.

But the authority said it had followed all procedures correctly and that the boiler was not faulty.

Today the family are moving back into the maisonette, as it has been declared safe by the council and they have nowhere else to go. Miss Hearn, who is seven weeks pregnant, was woken by the alarm at 1am.

She said: "I thought it was the smoke alarm, but heard it was coming from the kitchen and it was the carbon monoxide alarm. We rushed outside and phoned an ambulance.

"We felt like we were going to vomit. We were shaking and felt faint. Everything was fuzzy."

The family, who are currently staying with family, moved into the maisonette two months ago and say the boiler was not serviced immediately prior to them moving in.

"I don't want to go back there because I'm frightened now. I'm not going to be able to get any sleep. I'm a nervous wreck at the moment," Miss Hearn added.

"The hospital said that if we did not have the alarm we could have been dead."

Mr Twose said Southern Gas Networks had put stickers on the boiler saying it was unsafe. He said the council would not accept responsibility.

"I feel like we have had a very lucky escape. You think it will never happen to you, but it did and it's really scary," he said.

Winchester City Council said an inspection of the boiler by its independent surveyor, Nationwide, had found no problems and that the boiler had had the "unsafe" stickers put on it as a precaution and they were no longer valid.

A spokesman said: "Nationwide were not able to find a reason for the alarm going off. It could have been a faulty detector."

She added that the carbon monoxide could have come from any number of sources and that a new detector had been fitted to the house.

She said that the boiler was serviced three months ago and was in "perfectly good working order".