MUM SUFFERS BURNS IN BLAST

MUM Marie Pilgrim has issued a warning to tenants to check their gas supply after her cooker blew-up burning her leg and arm.

Her four-year-old son narrowly missed taking the full impact of the blast.

The accident happened when Mrs Pilgrim returned to her villa on a compound in Saar after picking up James from a nursery school trip.

She went to light the hob and it 'literally went kaboom!' Mrs Pilgrim suffered burns down her lower leg - from her right knee to her toes - and on a small area of her right arm. Her hair and eyebrows were also singed.

Moments earlier James had been standing by her side but thankfully moved behind her just as the blast happened and escaped with no more than a little singeing to his hair.

The mother-of-two said: "I knew enough to dash and turn the gas bottle off and I knocked on the door of my maid Abbi's room and she grabbed James and ran to a neighbour's house. I didn't want him anywhere nearby."

When she got back to the kitchen the cooker was still on fire and there was a second explosion as the electrical components of the dual fuel appliance burned out. The incident happened just four days after she had changed its gas bottle.

Fortunately the flames quickly abated and Mrs Pilgrim said: "I called my landlord and there was a team here within five minutes.

"A friend picked up my six-year-old daughter Charlotte from St Christopher's School and another friend took me to hospital."

When she returned home a landlord's representative was waiting for her and an investigation into the incident was launched.

She said: "A gas expert arrived very quickly. He believes the cause was the regulator on the gas bottle."

Gas bottles come with a regulator which has a diaphragm that should keep the gas supply at a constant 2/3lb per sq/inch but, when compromised, can allow through up to 20lb of gas per sq/inch which can prove extremely dangerous.

Mrs Pilgrim, and her engineer husband, Andrew, are English expats.

She added: "We only changed the gas bottle on Friday evening and when I used the hob over the weekend I noticed a little puff as if there was extra gas and the flame flared but then it died down quickly and I didn't give it any more thought. I didn't even mention it to Andrew.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing but what this has made me realise is that I'm going to make sure that these appliances get checked regularly in the same way as the air-conditioning is serviced every year and I would urge other people to do the same thing.

"And, I can't stress enough that if you notice a change in the flame from your gas cooker, turn it off immediately and get it checked.

"It may turn out to be nothing and dinner may be delayed a little while but it's definitely better to be safe than sorry.

"I turn 40 next week and I told my friend that I wanted to go out of my 30s with a bang ... but this certainly wasn't what I had in mind!"