Being a homeowner can be great, but it can also come with a lot of responsibilities. Ensuring the safety of yourself and your family is prime among them. There are a great many dangers in the average home that need to be accounted for.

Gas leaks are among the most dangerous of these hidden responsibilities. Every year, hundreds of people die due to exposure of carbon monoxide. Being aware of this potential danger is very important.

How can you prepare for something that you can’t see, and sometimes can’t smell? It’s all about proper preparation. There are steps you can take to stop gas leaks in your home. Want to know how to prevent gas danger? Read on, and we’ll walk you through what you need to know.

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Take Precautionary Measures

Better safe than sorry, as the saying goes. And that’s certainly true in the case of gas leaks and home safety. The last thing you want to do is wait until you think you MIGHT have a gas keen before taking any sort of real action.

Real gas leak prevention is about preparation. A responsible homeowner will have their house checked by a professional on a yearly basis at a minimum. That means having someone come in, look at your gas appliances, and be able to determine that they are functioning correctly and in a safe manner.

As much as you think you might be a crafty homeowner unless you’ve been professionally trained in gas inspection, this is not a task that you should take on on on your own. Saving a little bit of money is just not worth sacrificing your family’s safety.

A professional will be able to identify potential issues before they even occur, and offer suggestions and solutions to any presenter problem.

If you’re renting a property and not the owner then it is actually your landlord’s responsibility to hire a gas inspector to come in. This is actually a written law, and part of the requirements a landlord must follow to provide safe housing for their tenants. If you need more information, you can read more about gas inspectors in this article.

Install a CO Detector

Solid preparation will go a long way in ensuring your home remains safe and secure. But you still need to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

That’s where a CO detector can come in. If you’re not familiar with CO detectors, they are devices that are very similar to the smoke detectors you likely already have in your home.

Instead of detecting smoke and fire, they are able to recognize carbon monoxide, the gas that presents such a danger in gas leaks. When sensed, an alarm would be sounded, notifying residents and possibly saving their lives.

There are other alternatives to a CO detector out there on the market that you can look into. But you definitely want to get something that will sound an alarm as these devices do. Silent notification is not helpful and potentially dangerous.

If a gas leak occurs in the middle of the night, you need to be awakened so you can take immediate action. It is very possible to suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning without your body even waking up.

If you’re unsure of that status of your gas lines, it might be a wise idea to sleep with a few windows in your home propped open. This can keep fresh air coming in.

Symptoms of a Gas Leak

When it comes to detecting a gas leak, there are also some warning signs that you can keep an eye out for. Most of these will involve observing your gas appliances closely, such as your stove.

For example, you can look to the flames on your stove and see what their behavior is. Are they blue and bold, as they normally are? Or have they become orange or yellow, with less strength?

This change in color and behavior can be indicative of trouble in the gas line. So can dark staining around these appliances— clear evidence that a leak is occurring.

If you were to notice these signs, you should immediately turn off any and all gas appliances that you are using. It can be very dangerous to use a gas appliance with a gas leak active. With these appliances off, you should move to open as many windows in the home as possible.

This will let fresh air and oxygen in. Without doing this, you can feel drowsy, light-headed, and might even pass out. This can be dangerous for your health or even fatal.

If you think there is a gas leak in your home, it’s important to contact an emergency hotline immediately. There is a number of gas emergency services, and they can direct you to the proper help you need for your specific situation.

Someone will likely come and turn the gas line to your home off until the leak can be identified and repaired. Gas will be turned back on following full certainty that the leak has been taken care of.