One month before the winter season begins and with the imminent arrival of a cold wave, which will force many users to turn on the heating in their homes, the company MetroGAS released this Wednesday a statistic that generated alert and concern: in the last year, Clandestine gas connections in AMBA tripled.
The data arises from a survey carried out by the company, which warns about the dangers that can be caused by the fact that there are so many illegal installations of this type. Among the consequences warned, they mention fires, explosions and serious damage.
The figure, which marked a record in these cases, was known from a series of records carried out in the City of Buenos Aires and in the suburbs. These showed that in 2023 1,599 clandestine gas connections were discovered in different homes, while the previous year they had been 544.
“The number of cases has been increasing in recent years and in most of them they include altered meters, which reduce the values of the gas consumed to reduce the final rate; but they also refer to pipe modification and manipulation work to multiply gas outlets, thus enabling more than one home,” MetroGAS explained.
In detail, of the total number reported by the company, it was specified that there are 390 cases that correspond to CABA, while the others The remaining 1,209 belong to the province of Buenos Aires. “Which also reflects that there were a greater number of operations from the company’s Inspection and Control area in Buenos Aires territory,” they highlighted in this regard.
This figure is also an abrupt jump compared to previous years: in 2022, 544 clandestine connections had been detected; In 2021, there were 636, and in 2019, the total was 424.
In this sense, MetroGAS is responsible for highlighting that these events, beyond being illegal, are dangerous. Among the scenarios that may occur, an unauthorized or properly performed installation could cause a natural gas leak resulting in an explosion.
“The main risk of a clandestine connection is the explosion that can be generated from a leak of natural gas into the atmosphere. Other risks may be a fire or carbon monoxide poisoning, in addition to damage to people and/or materials due to an explosion or fire,” they detail from the company, which provides service to more than two million users.
In March 2023 there was a fire in a hostel in San Telmo, where the fire started in the kitchen and could be put out with fire extinguishers by the occupants. At the scene, firefighters detected that the gas niche was empty, there was no meter and the supply of the 45 units of the complex was made through a direct connection made in an illegal manner.
A similar event occurred in July 2023 when an explosion occurred in an apartment located in the Chacarita neighborhood. The cause was a gas accumulation within the plenum that contains the route of the internal pipes of all the units of the building. When inspecting the site, qualified MetroGAS personnel detected a total of 32 clandestine connectionswhich supplied gas to the kitchens in the apartments.
Finally, in November, a clandestine connection was detected in a company located in the Buenos Aires town of Avellaneda that allowed natural gas to enter the home without being measured and without having an internal installation approved by the distributor.
Upon carrying out the corresponding inspection, a large boiler was found lit and was supplied by that clandestine connection. On the public road, meanwhile, a branch was found perpendicular to the MetroGAS main pipe that entered the property and allowed the passage of natural gas without being measured.
That same month in Esteban Echeverría there was a fire in a factory. After firefighters controlled the incident, the company’s crew found a direct gas connection, in which a leak occurred. That was what started the fire in a mound of waste and the flames also reached semi-shades, trees and part of the exterior of the property.
If you detect a gas connection made illegally, the first step is to report the situation to the distributor. There are two basic guidelines that allow you to identify potentially dangerous situations:
- Any intervention on a natural gas installation carried out both inside the home and on public roads carried out by people other than MetroGAS, its contractor personnel or registered installers.
- Any natural gas installation that does not have a MetroGAS meter.
The registered gas fitter is the duly identified and authorized professional. The list of people authorized by the distributor is available at www.metrogas.com.ar.
