A Bit Off Topic: How To Turn Off The Gas

In yesterday's newsletter, I said that a friend of mine here in Italy returned home from a business trip, opened the door, smelled gas, and... boom. His house blew up because of a leak, probably in the stove, and now he's in Genova's Centro Grandi Ustionati (Italy's best burn ward) with severe burns to hands and arms, and serious burns over much of the rest of him.

A number of people have written to express their support, and I thank them and will pass on your notes -- he can get email, though he has to read them through the glass because he's in isolation.

Others have asked about the kitchen gas cutoff valve I said he had forgotten to close, and wondered if they are necessary with stoves that don't have old-style pilot lights. European gas stoves are every bit as advanced as American, with electronic pilot lights and thermocouples that interrupt gas flow if the burner goes off. However, other pipes within a stove can leak, and therefore Italian building codes still require a cutoff valve. Here is ours, in the C (chiuso, or off) position.

If your kitchen doesn't have a safety valve, getting at the pipes to put one in would probably be difficult. However, if you are redoing your kitchen (or buying/building a new house) it will be easy to get at the gas pipe, and at that point I would heartily recommend that you install a safety valve. A small expense to avoid being like my friend, in a burn ward and without a house.

How to determine the severity of a burn. | Gas grills can be dangerous too: How to check for leaks.