This report is an analysis of gas incidents reported to EnergySafety over a ten year period from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2015.
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 807 gas related incidents reported in the ten years from 2005/06 to 2014/15. 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 five fatal incidents which resulted in seven fatalities over the reporting period.
A fatality occurred in 2014/15 in a caravan fire where the person was trapped inside. The police found a gas cylinder inside the caravan that had a loose connection and was partially on. The cause of this fatal incident is still undetermined.
There were 9 incidents which resulted in serious injury in 2014/15 bringing the total number of incidents in this category to 77 since 2005/06.
During 2014/15, there were 13 incidents which resulted in minor injury. There were 109 such incidents during the reporting period.