The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has indicated there could be more money on the way for social housing stock and repairs in this month’s budget after a woman died when a townhouse with a history of suspected gas leaks in Sydney’s west exploded.
Mhey Yumol Jasmin’s body was found in the rubble on Monday morning after two days of searching at the Whalan social housing complex, where two gas meters were found to be damaged in recent months.
The housing minister, Rose Jackson, has vowed to closely monitor the department investigation into the incident after being made aware of reports that residents living in the townhouse complex had “raised the issue of the smell of gas within the last 12 months”.
Homes NSW was on Monday compiling a list of all work requests made for the Waikanda Crescent complex over the past five years, with NSW police and Fire and Rescue NSW also investigating.
According to government sources, there were two known broken gas meters in the past seven months.
In November, a resident reported a suspected gas leak and a contractor attended. The fault was with a gas meter and, according to the government, gas provider Jemena attended the property and resolved the issue.
Five months later in April, the maintenance company contracted by the government, Ventia, responded to an urgent work order after a resident again reported smelling gas. The contractor found the gas meter union had split and the part was replaced.
Ventia said it took incidents like gas leaks “seriously” and responded to them swiftly.
“In the last 12 months Ventia has received two reports of the smell of gas at the impacted property, both of which were completed, with one referred to the gas utility,” a spokesperson said.
Asked about maintenance of the property, Homes NSW said it would not comment due to the police investigation.
“Our thoughts remain with our residents and the neighbours that were impacted by the incident at Whalan over the weekend,” a spokesperson said.
Displaced residents are being offered temporary accommodation until permanent solutions can be found.
Det Supt Darren Newman from NSW police said investigators would pick through what remained at the property over the coming days as they worked to determine the cause of the blast, including whether gas played a role.
Gas supply, maintenance and inspection logs would be reviewed.
A spokesperson for Jemena said the company was “cooperating fully” and that the “investigation into the cause may take some time”.
The Master Plumbers Association of NSW chief executive, Nathaniel Smith, said gas could be “dangerous” and urged anyone with concerns about their own homes to call emergency services.
“If someone ever smells gas, they should call someone. It’s dangerous stuff,” the former NSW Liberal MP said.
The Australian Society of Building Consultants president, Graham Thorpe, said explosions of this size were not frequent and needed to be properly investigated.
“Gas explosions are not pretty – that’s why we treat them with such a high degree of seriousness,” he said.
“It’s a tragic event. It really needs to be investigated.”
Speaking generally about the state of public housing in NSW, Minns said on Monday that it was a “real concern”.
He said there had been a reduction in housing over the past decade “at precisely the same time as we had an increase in homelessness and a housing crisis in the state”.
“Something’s got to give here,” the premier said.
“We’re hoping to look at it very closely in the NSW budget because, obviously, the circumstances as they currently exist aren’t good enough.”
The sector was disappointed by measures included in the budget last year, saying they amounted to “crumbs” when compared with the scale of need in a state experiencing a “chronic housing crisis”.
The chief executive of Homelessness NSW, Dom Rowe, said the government needed to commit to building 5,000 new social homes a year for the next decade.
“There is a dire shortage of social housing in NSW and what’s there is often in poor condition,” she said.
“Too often, people are forced to choose between staying in rundown and unsafe accommodation or sleeping rough.”
