A Nice day out with the Photographer?

A long time ago – in the Mid 1980’s – Peter Walker (something like the Secretary of state for Energy?) was going on a trade mission to China (I think) and needed pictures of actual British meter installations. Somehow I got the short straw of providing some.

At that time, I was an Assistant Industrial Gas Engineer for British Gas on a district covering a large area of Leicester. We had a speciality in manifold metering installations because a number of large factories had been converted into much smaller workshops each owned by a different business and that was the only practical way of getting a supply available to them. These manifolds could have anything up to 30 or 40 meters each, and make quite an interesting picture. Add to this a number of larger meter installation of various ages and we had an interesting itinerary.

So I was given a professional photographer to chauffeur around the chosen sites ( I also took my trusty Olympus Trip and some of the pictures that eventually went to the minister came from that!). It was a nice sunny day and we were driving along with the car windows open when we noticed an exceptionally strong smell of gas. I stopped and began to investigate, my attention was drawn to a digger operating in the frontage of a nearby factory. The operator seemed to be standing near the bucket and looking into the hole he had just dug. As I approached the smell of gas got MUCH stronger and it was obvious that the source lay there.
When I looked into the hole I could see that he had chopped completely through a 4in diameter service pipe to the building. I resisted the temptation to meet his comment “it wasn’t very deep” by the reply that “it is over half a metre deeper than I expected it to be”! I snapped into “Emergency Gas Man “mode.

I ordered the digger turned off and sent him and the photographer to prevent anyone approaching the scene.
Looking for the service isolation valve (all services over 2in have them) was futile -a smooth extent of tarmac covered the pavement across the whole width of the building, so I entered the building. Commandeering a telephone, I instructed them to close all the windows and turn off any electrical equipment at the front of the building (I made the gas system “safe” a little later). Ringing my own office, I gave the address where I was and asked for a “Z” form to be raised and a distribution supervisor to be sent to me “IMMEDIATELY”.
When he arrived he and I effected a “temporary repair” –in, what I suspect, was unapproved methodology, we took turns in the hole (avoiding asphyxiation from the gas) blocking the hole with a plastic bag initially. This was backed with clay (conveniently available in the hole) packed as hard as we could and finished up with “tar tape” I happened to have in the car boot. Pretty solid repair that until a proper isolation could be made by a distribution gang even if not using approved materials!
So I returned to the office after my “quiet day with the photographer” with a new tale and covered with mud! However it all proved that I’m a practical engineer when it matters!