By Cara Sulieman
AUTHOR Ian Rankin discovered that gas had been pumping into his home for SIX years when workmen came round to fix his heating.
Writing about the incident on his Twitter, the crime writer said his son now “has an excuse for school grades”.
The first message on the social networking site said that workmen had come to fix the boiler at the author’s Edinburgh home before noticing a leak.
And the second message revealed just how long the poisonous gas had been seeping out of the pipes.
Rankin wrote: “Guy came to fix boiler today. Quote he: ‘Anyone smell gas?’ After much searching, found a gas pipe in a duct with a nail through it.“So we’ve had a gas leak ever since we moved in…that’s six years! Suddenly No 1 son has excuse for school grades.”
Fumes
Although the author tried to make light of the discovery, gas fumes can kill.
Inhaling too much of the noxious fumes deprives the body of oxygen, making people tired and sick.
And if too much is inhaled it can cause breathing to stop altogether.
This house has about eight bedrooms, I always forget how many there are, it’s so big. We first saw it in the very early stages. It was nothing but a shell. The floorboards had been ripped up, and there was no kitchen or bathroom.
Rankin lives in Morningside with his wife and two sons – one of whom is disabled.
They moved into the house when it was still being renovated so they could make specific changes to suit his son’s wheelchair.
The author previously described how run-down the building was when they moved in.
He said: “We first saw it in the very early stages. It was nothing but a shell.
“The floorboards had been ripped up, and there was no kitchen or bathroom.”
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