Portable gas appliances

Boat owners to treat all such portable gas equipment with great respect and change fuel canisters away from the boat and sources of ignition.

Even portable gas equipment can cause an explosion big enough to send people to hospital.

Escaped lpg from only one can form a flammable gas cloud the size of 250 cans.

In the poorly ventilated, tight confines of a boat escaping gas is more dangerous than when it happens ashore out in the open.

An explosion on the Norfolk Broads saw two people taken to hospital for treatment for burns to their legs, hands and faces.

The explosion happened when the gas canister of a camping stove was being changed in the open cockpit of a small sailing boat where candles and cigarettes were in use.