Island Energy is due to appear in the Magistrate’s Court next week after being charged with health and safety offences relating to last year’s explosion at a home on Mont Pinel.
Emergency services were called to Elizabeth Villas on the evening of Wednesday 26 June 2024 when an “unidentified suspected explosion and structural collapse” necessitated the rescue of two adults and two children from a property, and the evacuation of nearby residents.
Despite the front wall of their home collapsing, the children – aged two and five at the time – were unharmed, while their parents reportedly sustained “non-life-threatening or life-changing” injuries.
It was later determined that the explosion was likely to have occurred due to ignition of a mixture of a flammable gas and air that accumulated within the property.
Jersey Gas, which trades as Island Energy, is facing a single charge under the Health and Safety Law for failing in its duties to ensure the health and safety of persons not in their employment, including the public.
The firm said it is taking this matter “extremely seriously and is fully co-operating with the authorities”.
The investigation was carried out by the Health and Safety Inspectorate, an independent regulator which enforces the law and whose inspectors are specialist criminal investigators.
Island Energy is due to appear before the Magistrate’s Court on Thursday 4 December.