CO alarms for social housing homes

Nearly 3,000 Housing Executive homes in Northern Ireland are to be fitted with carbon monoxide alarms following the deaths of five people over the last six months.

Some 2,722 properties with solid fuel glass-fronted fires will have carbon monoxide detectors fitted, while 943 homes are in the process of having their heating systems replaced.

It comes after the deaths of five people in three separate incidents since last summer.

Teenagers Aaron Davidson and Neil McFerran died in Castlerock, Co Londonderry, last August after gas leaked into a holiday flat.

In November, husband and wife Killian and Pauline Scallon were overcome at their home in Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh.

And it is thought that a Malaysian man found dead in a restaurant in the same village may also have been overcome by poisonous fumes.

Social Development Minister Alex Attwood said: “I have asked the Housing Executive to push on with this important work including how to make homes safe and warm, better insulation and thermal efficiency work, retrofitting and other measures to upgrade properties.”