Cooking with gas warning
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• Emergency services and industry spokesmen have united in warning truck drivers against using gas cookers inside the cab.
The warnings follow a blaze in a truck which left Hartlepool driver David Thompson with severe burns to his hands and arms.
Fire safety officers said after the fire in Lichfield that drivers should not be using open flame cookers or heaters inside the cab under any circumstances. A fire brigade spokesman says a naked flame in a small area is a danger as is the storage of spare gas cylinders in the cab.
Manufacturers agree and add that electric saucepans and even microwaves could be run off 24volt systems.
Ian Norwell, spokesman for Mercedes.Benz and a former truck driver himself, says: "Any naked flame inside a cab is bad news. Electric equipment is far preferable."
But Norwell adds that the problem of cooking in the cab is sometimes unavoidable because of the dearth of reasonably priced roadside cafes for truckers.
He says: "There is little between extremely expensive motorway service stations and old shacks. One of the problems is that a lot of places don't have parking room for trucks, so drivers are forced to eat in the cab. The dedicated truckstops are excellent, but there aren't enough of them."