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The gas fitter did everything he should have done, according to regulations, when he fitted the fire. Inspected the flue to ensure it appeared to be in good condition, put a smoke bomb up to ensure it wasn't blocked. He's a gas safe fitter, gas board trained and very experienced, so didn't neglect anything he should have. The fire he took out was one that he had fitted many years before, and serviced every year. It was only replaced because of a broken part and due to its age replacements were no longer available. Had parts been available, she would still have the old one in place.
There is no legislation to say that it is mandatory to have a flue liner if having a gas fire fitted, although maybe there should be, and in an old house it's probably a good idea. As long as the instructions with the fire say a liner is not needed, and the flue has been inspected its ok. At the time there was no reason to suspect any issues with the flue. We have no idea how long there has been apparent damage to the chimney, all we know is the carbon monoxide alarm started alarming about 3 weeks ago, and subsequently we discovered the hole in our flue.
We also had a gas fire many years ago, and had to have a liner as our flue at that time was deemed not to be gas safe, and no wonder it wasn't. I remember them going on the roof, no scaffolding, to put it in place. It was quite a performance as I remember. 20 years later, when we wanted to replace the fire, we were asked how old the liner was and told it would probably not be up to the regulations and needed replacing. Hence now we have an electric fire.
The thing is, we know for a fact that our chimney is not gas safe, although it might well have been the hole we found that was the reason.
What he wanted to do as soon as this problem became apparent, was to remove the fire and have another look to see if anything had changed and was visible. As she was due to go on holiday 2 days later, she didn't want that to be done at the time. We all agreed that she wouldn't use the fire again, apart from the time we tested to see if the carbon monoxide was indeed coming out of the hole in our flue. Then she's away for 3 weeks, so the fire is out of use just now. When she comes back the situation will have to be addressed, but I don't believe that the gas fitter has been neglectful in any way.