Do not touch anything electrical
No light switches. No power points. Do not unplug anything, do not use the doorbell, and do not start the car in an attached garage.
A switch makes a small spark inside the housing every time it moves. That is enough. This includes turning something off, which people forget.
Get air moving and get out
Open doors and windows on your way past them. Then get everyone, including pets, outside and away from the building.
Do not stay inside to investigate. Locating the leak is not your job and there is no version of that which is worth the risk.
Turn the gas off at the source
For LPG, that is the valve on top of the bottle, turned clockwise. For natural gas, it is the tap at the meter, usually a quarter turn so the handle sits across the pipe rather than along it.
Do this only if you can reach it from outside and without going back through the affected area. If you cannot get to it safely, skip this step and go straight to the next one.
Call from outside
Use your mobile once you are well clear of the building, not while standing next to the meter.
For a suspected major leak or if you cannot isolate it, call the gas emergency line for your supplier first. Then call us and we will locate it, repair it, and recertify the installation.
Afterwards
Do not turn the gas back on yourself, even if the smell has gone. The installation needs to be pressure tested before it is used again, and that test is what tells you whether the leak was one fitting or a line that is failing in several places.
Any repair we do comes with a Certificate of Compliance, which is your written record that the system was tested and passed.
Written by the team at Adlington Plumbing. Licensed plumbing and gas fitting across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast. Licence 384065C.