A Halifax woman is campaigning for a change in the law after a gas explosion completely destroyed her parents’ house, leaving her mum with serious burns.
Gemma McLaughlin said the explosion ruined the lives of her and her parents, Liam, 67, and Gwen, 66, McLaughlin. According to Gemma, in December 2020, there was a fractured gas main underneath the footpath outside of their house that then exploded, destroying the building on Green Lane in Illingworth, near to Halifax.
She said: “It destroyed the house. The house blew to smithereens, there was nothing left.
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“My mum was critically ill for quite a long time in hospitals, she spent four and a half months in there. They had to put her in an induced coma, she suffered a stroke and they didn’t know until three months later of trying to rehabilitate her and get her out of bed because of the extent of the burns.
“She had 36% burns to her body and so when she did come out of hospital four and a half months later, she was unable to walk.”
(Image: Gemma McLaughlin)
Liam had to give up work to look after Gwen and while they received money from their home insurance, Northern Gas Networks, who were responsible for the maintenance of the pipe, were not liable to pay damages. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found they had committed no wrongdoing.
However, Gwen was diagnosed with lung cancer eight months after being discharged from hospital and Gemma said her health conditions made her less able to fight the cancer. She died in January of this year.
Gemma said: “It’s a domino effect on all of the family. It’s ruined our lives really because its something you can never get out of your mental mind.
“The things you see behind closed doors and the devastation in my mum, it’s just awful.”
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While Gemma says that there was no compensation which would have made up for what happened, she added that it could have helped her parents live a more comfortable life. She added that some sort of justice would have helped bring about some closure for her family.
(Image: Gemma McLaughlin)
Gemma did engage with solicitors and the Health and Safety Executive, but said the process was “really, really hard”.
As for Liam, Gemma said: “He’s just getting up every day and taking it as it comes. He’s just recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer as well so it’s hard for him to try to keep up hope of getting some justice.”
Now, Gemma is campaigning for a change in the law and has submitted a petition to Parliament, asking for a modification of the Pipelines Safety Regulations 1996. She wants to be able to hold gas companies liable in cases of explosions.
(Image: Gemma McLaughlin)
She said: “Even if I can only, I can just get the signatures on this petition and get something moving on getting this regulation changed, then I’ll be happy with that.
“I don’t want anybody else to ever be in this situation that my family’s been in.”
You can sign this petition on the UK Government and Parliament Petitions website here.
Northern Gas Networks have been contacted for comment.
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