Homes & Gardens

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service is warning of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning after attending an incident in Wellington, Somerset, on Saturday night.

Extremely high levels of carbon monoxide were found within a house on Longforth Road and one person was feeling sick awaiting the arrival of an ambulance. Four people were taken to hospital with carbon monoxide symptoms. When crews arrived, a carbon monoxide detector was sounding and the family had left the house.

Station Manager Mark House said: “This incident illustrates how important it is to have...

Why not try home and garden maintenance company with a difference? Project Petrock is a social enterprise set up by Exeter-based charity, St Petrock’s, with the aim of helping people who are or have been homeless into work or training.

Project Petrock aims to help people by providing volunteering in ‘real work’ situations. Volunteers gain on-the-job training from an experienced builder while making meaningful use of their time and gaining a current volunteering record. Since March this year, of the 18 volunteers joining the project, two have gone into employment and three into...

Most people have extension leads in their homes, often using four-way bar adaptors to increase the number of appliances that you can plug into a wall socket.

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service remind you that although there is space to plug in four appliances, this does not mean it is always safe to do so.

Different electrical appliances use different amounts of power. To avoid the risk of overheating and possibly fire, you should never plug into an extension lead or socket appliances that together use more than 13 amps or 3000 watts of energy.

The...

Persimmon Homes will be the first housebuilder in Devon and Cornwall to offer prospective home buyers access to the Government’s FirstBuy 2 scheme after signing up with the Homes & Communities Agency.

Nationally, 281 of the group’s Persimmon and Charles Church developments will offer the scheme, with a possibility of further sites being added at a later date. Across the South West region at least ten of the developments will offer the scheme. Home buyers can reserve their new home using the scheme from this week for legal completions from 1st April, 2013 to 31st March, 2014....