This Oil Valve on floor near boiler started leaking?

[bomitie]

With nothing to do today I thought I would do a spring clean on my Grant Vortex 26-36KW model so turned off power, removed door, and then removed baffles gave them a scrub , hoovered out chamber BUT got a phone call while I was messing. After phone call noticed smell of kerosene, looked on floor and the valve was leaking!! I don't know whether I banged it by accident. Anyway put boiler back to together, twisted that little screw on top of valve, fired up boiler all good heated HW for about 30 mins. Put a piece of paper under valve checked it now and its dry. But why did it leak in the first place?

Also I keep hearing about " A fire safety valve, should be fitted" but last time I was quoted €70.0 so declined but if this valve is now getting iffy should I replace it with a fire safety valve? What exactly is a fire safety valve and is it easy to fit? Tank is almost empty but it will soon be topped up for winter so would like everything shipshape.

Here is a pic of valve and I did twist it anti clockwise and that seemed to do the trick. I take this valve is just a stop valve.

 

[Best]

The valve you have is a fusible head Firevalve, but doesn’t meet oil safety regulations. They also tend to leak due to O rings gland inside them.
The valve head has a small threaded ‘nut’ soldered with low temperature melting solder and the valve is under a spring release pressure, so in theory a fire supposedly would melt the outer head off allowing valve to snap off.
No use in reality and needs a remote firevalve with sensor probe at boiler - a Tedington KBB valve for example.
You need an experienced oil engineer to do proper service - boiler and burner cleaned, nozzle and oil hoses replaced, oil filters cleaned/replaced, entire install, flue, oil tank inspected and an oil pump pressure gauge and analyser used to set up the combustion accurately. Worth every penny to pay a local decent engineer if you can find one