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Dorset gamekeeper hurt in gas explosion

By Barnaby Dracup

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

Industry experts are urging countryside workers to keep up with essential health and safety checks after a gamekeeper and his wife were injured in a gas explosion in a rearing shed in Dorset recently.

Headkeeper at the Mapperton estate, Michael Montero and his wife Jenny suffered severe burns in a gas blast on 16 June.

Fire crews from Beaminster spent nearly three hours tackling the blaze in one of 110 units housing pheasants.

A spokesman for the Dorset Fire and Rescue Service said three 56kg propane gas cylinders were "heavily engulfed in fire".

The estate owner, the Earl of Sandwich, said: "From what I gather, Mike was attending to the rearing field and went to investigate a faulty connection in the gas canister."

Two years ago, part-time beater Lindsay George Redpath, died at Balbirnie Estates, Fife, after he slept overnight in a pheasant rearing shed occasionally used as a bothy.

As a result of this incident, BASC has brought forward a series of gas safety awareness days and is currently finalising dates and location.

Each will include practical instruction and training on the safe storage and handling of LPG cylinders, LPG hazard awareness and the maintenance of gas equipment.

The rest of this article appears in 26 June issue of Shooting Times.