News / ‘Potential loss of life’ if thousands of gas cylinders not collected from isles
A PLEA has been made for Shetlanders to come forward if they have any Zetgas or Flogas cylinders – with around 6,000 needing to be urgently collected.
A specialist team from the Merseyside area will travel to Shetland in July to collect and remove as many expired gas cylinders as they can.
Norgas Technical manager John Webster said that the gas cylinders would “slowly rot away” if left untouched, and could potentially pose a risk to the public.
“The cylinders are just lying around, slowly corroding away,” he told Shetland News.
“Think of it as the MOTs expired on them. Once the cylinder goes out of test then it’s unlawful to fill it and unlawful for it to remain in service.
“Right now, do they pose a danger to the public? Not really.
“But they will slowly rot away, and if there’s any gas in the cylinders then that will escape.
“You don’t need me to spell it out what can then happen. There’s the potential for loss of life.
Webster came to Shetland recently to collect gas cylinders left behind after Zetgas ceased trading in 2023.
He said he had been told there would be 6,000 cylinders waiting for him in a yard in Lerwick.
“I’ve been in the job for almost 50 years and it only took me seconds to realise there wasn’t 6,000 cylinders there,” he said.
“I thought I was coming up to a yard full of gas bottles, but it’s become a bloody recovery job.”
He estimates that there were 1,500 bottles there ready to be collected.
That means that there are 4,500 Zetgas bottles to be picked up, along with another 1,500 bottles from Flogas.
“So that’s 6,000 cylinders we’re looking to find,” Webster added.
“The atmosphere in Shetland is quite saline, so the cylinders corrode far faster than they generally would on the mainland.
“The last thing we want to do is put the fear of God in to the population of Shetland, but we need to get them away and get them off Shetland.”
The Norgas boss said the bottom line is that they needed help from the people of Shetland to tell them where the empty bottles are – so they can collect them during a two-week visit in July.
“So far we’ve been notified of about 130 cylinders, which is not even one per cent of what we need to find,” he said.
“We need the people of Shetland to get behind this programme because they have them, and we need to find them.”
Anyone with any information about empty Zetgas or Flogas canisters is asked to call 01744 753634 or email zetgasrecoveries@norgas.co.uk.
People are asked to provide their name, address, postcode and What3Words location if possible.
Webster said it would make a huge difference if people could provide a What3Words location, as the small Merseyside team are not familiar with Shetland and will be using satnav to get around.
People are also asked to get in touch as soon as possible so the team can formulate a plan for working their way around Shetland.
They will be in the isles from 1 July.
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