Gas utilisation incidents

There were 596 gas utilisation incidents reported during the period 2005/06 to 2014/15. 28% occurred within a workplace setting and the remainder within the larger community. Figure 8 below shows the distribution between workplace and non-workplace incidents over the past ten years.

Figure 8A shows the percentage distribution of workplace and non-workplace incidents.

Figure 9 below is a classification of incidents according to broad categories of workers and the general public. Gas workers were involved in 9% of the incidents.

 
Gas utilisation incidents – by type of gas

Natural gas, LPG (Propane), LPG (Butane) and auto gas are the main types of gas utilised in Western Australia.

Figure 10 below provides a graphical view of incidents in relation to the type of gas. 47% of incidents involved NG, followed by LPG (Propane) at 51%.

The percentage of incidents involving butane and auto gas is low compared to NG and LPG (propane). There have been 5 incidents involving butane and 8 incidents related to auto gas over the ten year period.

There was one notable incident involving butane in 2004/05, where a lunchbox gas cooker with a butane canister exploded causing serious injury to four people.
 
Figure 11 and figure 12 are a classification of the type of incidents reported to EnergySafety segregated by the type of gas. This breakdown of incident types has not altered by a significant margin over the ten year reporting period. Charts have not been prepared for butane and autogas due to the low number of incidents in those categories.

There is a wide range of equipment/appliances involved in gas utilisation incidents as shown in Figure 13 below.

The most common types of equipment found in utilisation incidents are water heaters (hot water systems) accounting for 24% of the incidents. This was followed by LPG (storage) cylinders at 16% and recreational equipment (which includes gas barbeques) at 15%.

Most incidents involving water heaters occurred while lighting the pilot light.

Component failure was also found to be the cause in the majority of LPG storage incidents and in incidents involving recreational equipment like barbeques.
 
From 2005/06 to 2014/15, in the area of gas utilisation, 0.8% have resulted in fatalities, 11.9% in serious injury requiring hospitalisation, 15.7% resulting in minor injuries and 71.6% did not result in any injury.

The same data set has been analysed in terms of damage to property, with an almost even split between incidents resulting in some kind of property damage and those with no impact to property.