The MP who called the fire brigade to sort out her noisy boiler has been getting a fair bit of stick from the media for her daft decision to dial 999.

But it does raise the question about who to call if you have a sudden problem with your boiler.

Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green Lynne Featherstone told the tale on her web-site, saying that a terrible noise started to vibrate the whole house. She rushed outside with her daughter and dog, and made the call to the emergency services.

The fire brigade – sirens blasting out and lights flashing – dutifully dashed over and discovered an air-lock had caused the vibration and noise.

Now, who hasn’t experienced vibrating pipes when an air-lock decides to work its way into your central heating system? I once had a boiler which sounded like a Rolls-Royce jet engine on take-off, but apart from turning the thermostat down, there was nothing you could do.

I didn’t ring 999 and nor should anyone in such circumstances, but given that if might have been a completely out-of-the-blue incident, and not immediately obviously the boiler, then the poor MP should not be so vilified in the media.

And boilers do contain boiling hot water, fuel (mostly gas) and highly toxic gases. So come on, the lady did wrong, but it’s not in the same league as the person who dialled 999 because she couldn’t get her coin out of the supermarket trolley.  

So what to do if your boilers starts the Torville and Dean dance sequence with accompanying orchestral sounds? You do what you should always do, immediately turn it off. If you smell gas, then open your windows, turn off the gas supply if you can, get everyone outside and ring the gas company. If there’s no immediate danger, or apparent problems, then leave it a short while and turn it on again; it may just have been an operational blip. If something looks wrong, then call your gas supplier if you have a maintenance contract, or, if not, call your plumber to take a look. Always be safer than sorry.

So, who you going to call? Not 999 please, or the Ghostbusters for that matter.

Guest Article by Neil Camp