Gas smell spreads over Bucks

6:07pm Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

BUCKS fire stations have received calls about an unpleasant smell of gas which has been spreading over southern England.

According to the Health Protection Agency, the rotten egg-like odour has come from a chemical leaked from a factory in France.

A statement issued today says: “The smell drifting over southern England today poses no risk to public health. The odour, which is similar to rotten eggs, has been noticed by people mainly in Kent, East and West Sussex and some parts of Surrey.

"It is caused by a particularly smelly chemical that is added to odourless natural gas to give its characteristic smell.

"The chemical leaked from a factory in Rouen, France, yesterday, and has blown across the Channel overnight.

“It is not toxic and has also been diluted before entering the air over England, so people should be reassured it will cause no harm. It is an unpleasant odour which may cause some people to feel slightly nauseous but it will dispel naturally."

Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service received three 999 calls between 12.47pm and 1.22pm today from residents in Aylesbury, Wendover and Carrington Road in High Wycombe.

Fire crews also issued this advice:

If you have a gas leak at your property, call the National Gas Emergency Service free on 0800 111 999. Don't create a flame or operate electrical switches. Do put out flames, open doors and windows, keep people away from the area and turn the gas off at the control valve.

Comments(11)

Marmite XO says...
7:31pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Out must be bad if it smells worse than the French.

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Marmite XO says...
7:31pm Tue 22 Jan 13

It

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Mr Totterdge Hill says...
7:39pm Tue 22 Jan 13

It's all that garlic you know....

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cab 57 says...
9:11pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Prestwood high street. Very full of gas.!!!

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gpn01 says...
10:10pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Spent nearly an hour trying to get through on the "emergency" number today (not realising that it was a widespread issue). Instead of the message saying "your call is important to us, please hold the line" couldn't it instead have said "a known issue is affecting S.E. England"!

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knows it all says...
10:59pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Honestly, i smelt it and thought it was FUNNY SMELL. My wife didn,t believe me. i live close to wycombe town centre Later spoke to somebody and they smelt it in marlow at around same time.

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deecee01 says...
11:27pm Tue 22 Jan 13

my friend at work said she smelt gas, but I couldn't smell a thing!

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WycombeMan&Boy says...
8:00am Wed 23 Jan 13

I rang the Enviroment Agency who advised me of the cause and I immediately passed on the info to the BFP News Desk but it took several hours before it appear on here by which time the problem had blown over....

In the meantime I'm sure there were many others like me who were kept busy checking the vehicles, factories, boiler systems for potential faults which were non-existant...

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lo-belle says...
9:39am Wed 23 Jan 13

we were driving down the A404 last night and on the marlow slip road really did smell awful

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washondo says...
1:18pm Wed 23 Jan 13

In Booker we're so accustomed to the foul smells emanating from the composting at High Heavens for the other 11 months of the year, we are olfactorily ambivalent.
~
Who planned that there???

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peesh64 says...
6:41pm Wed 23 Jan 13

Thought something smelt a tad oeuf

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