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A NURSING assistant was rushed to hospital amid carbon monoxide poisoning fears just streets away from a devastating gas explosion.
Alex Bryan, 63, fell ill at his home in Kincaidston, Ayr, where a nearby blast left a trail of destruction two months ago.
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The NHS worker raised the alarm on Christmas Eve after smelling gas seeping from the boiler in his living room while wife Anne, 64, was relaxing upstairs.
Workers for gas firm SGN raced to the property in Trefoil Place and confirmed the couple’s fears before ripping up their garden on Christmas Day and shutting off the pipeline.
But ten days after the urgent measures, their gas supplier Ovo still hasn’t been to the house to fix the wonky boiler – meaning they’ve had no water or heating over the festive season.
And Alex reckons he could have died if the leak hadn’t been spotted.
He said: “I had been ill and I didn’t know why. I was feeling sick and dizzy and never thought too much about it until I found the gas leak.
“The boiler is in the cupboard in my living room and I had gone in to get my jacket to pick my wife up from work and I could smell gas.
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“I phoned SGN and they sent out an emergency gas man.
“He told me there was no leak in the boiler at first but when he went outside he discovered a leak outside.
“So he checked the boiler again and sure enough there was a leak there too.
“They had to cap it off and they got in contact with the same people who did the work after the explosion.”
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Alex was working night shift at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock on Christmas Eve when they started tearing the garden up to check the pipes.
He says he couldn’t get any sleep as the work continued and three days later ended up in hospital on Boxing Day.
He said: “I couldn’t stop being sick and I went to A&E where I was told my symptoms could be linked to carbon monoxide poisoning.
“I’m starting to think it has been leaking ever since the explosion.
“My wife has been lucky because when I’m watching the football she goes upstairs and watches DVDs – but I’ve been lying right next to it.
“Our house isn’t far from where the explosion was and our whole street shook.
“There’s a big hole in my garden which I had only recently got done up.
“We’ve been staying in the house with no hot water so it’s lucky my sister lives round the corner because we’ve been able to get washed and have a shower.
‘I COULD HAVE BEEN POISONED TO DEATH’
“I also feel lucky that I’ve been getting out the house to go to work because if I’d been sitting in there day after day I could have been poisoned to death. It’s a scary thought.”
Bradley Barlow of SGN said: “We were called to a property in Trefoil Place on Friday, December 24 following reports of a smell of gas. We carried out checks and made the situation safe, capping the pipework and laying a new gas supply from the main to the property.”
We told how the home shared by William and Marion Ferguson and their two kids exploded on October 18 showering the Kincaidston scheme in Ayr with bricks, glass and roof tiles.
The blast was felt several miles away and left dozens temporarily homeless.
SGN chiefs ordered an upgrade of its network to plastic pipes and some homes had to be demolished.
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