A “major incident” has been declared in Sheffield as thousands were left to brave freezing temperatures without gas in their homes.
Engineers have been scrambling to restore supplies for five days now in parts of the South Yorkshire city after a burst water main damaged a gas pipe – sending hundreds of litres of water pouring into the network.
Gas supplies were said to have been restored on Tuesday to around a quarter of those impacted, after some 2,000 homes in the Stannington area were hit by the outage on Friday.
But with temperatures plunging below 0C overnight and thousands of people still left without heating or hot water, Sheffield City Council declared a major incident – with the outage said to have “spread further across the city” since Friday.
“Over the weekend we were alerted to a contained situation and have been assisting Cadent as best we can,” said council leader Terry Fox. “Since then, the incident has progressed and spread further across the city.
“With a colder spell due in the coming days it is important we and other organisations across the city collaborate to ensure all the residents affected are provided with the support they require, especially the most vulnerable.
“By declaring a major incident, we will be better able to coordinate the overall response to the issues and call on additional support if needed.”
More than 100 engineers from gas firm Cadent have been working in Stannington and neighbouring Hillsborough since the weekend, going house to house to flush water out of the system and check homes, some of which saw liquid pouring from their gas meters and appliances.
The engineers are working with the Red Cross, as well as Northern Powergrid, British Gas and Yorkshire Water, according to the firm. Cadent crews and contractors were working on virtually every street in the Stannington village area on Wednesday, digging dozens of holes in the suburb’s roads.
In an update at 9pm on Tuesday, Cadent said its engineers had removed a further 200,000 litres of water that day and managed to get a quarter of affected residents back on gas.
The Met Office has forecast that temperatures could plunge lower than -10C in parts of Britain in the coming days and has issued a series of weather alerts for icy weather across the UK on Wednesday and Thursday.
The national forecaster has issued yellow weather alerts across parts of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Wednesday and Thursday, and cautions that up to 2 inches of snow may fall at lower levels north of the border, with 4 inches on the hilltops.
Blizzard conditions and snow drifts are possible in the strong northerly winds, as daytime temperatures struggle to rise above 0C for large parts of the UK, the Met Office said.
The UK Health Security Agency is also advising that people heat their homes to at least 18C where possible, and has issued its second-highest cold weather alert across England – meaning that social and healthcare services will take action to protect high-risk groups.
“Cold weather can have serious consequences for health, and older people and those with heart or lung conditions can be particularly at risk,” said Dr Agostinho Sousa, a UKHSA consultant in public health medicine.
“If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you should heat your home to a temperature that is comfortable for you. In rooms you mostly use, such as the living room or bedroom, try to heat them to at least 18C if you can. Keep your bedroom windows closed at night. Wearing several layers of clothing will keep you warmer than one thicker layer.”
After visiting Stannington on Tuesday with Mr Fox, council chief executive Kate Josephs said that community buildings, including a pub, were available for those struggling to keep warm.
“We’d really encourage anyone who is concerned to call Cadent,” Ms Josephs told BBC Radio Sheffield. “Nobody should be sitting at home worrying about putting their heaters on.”
She added: “It is getting chilly. We’re doing everything we can and Cadent are working tirelessly through day and night to get the water out of the pipes and get the heating back on.”
Olivia Blake, the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam, said she has asked chancellor Jeremy Hunt for emergency funding for the council.
“I have further meetings planned with Yorkshire Water and I am in ongoing talks with the leadership of the council on getting support to residents,” Ms Blake said.
“I have also spoken directly with the chancellor of the Exchequer urging him to provide emergency funding to the council and have written to him formally, alongside the secretaries of state for business, for the environment, and for levelling-up, to request urgent assistance.
“My heart goes out to all those affected – this is a terrible thing to happen at any time, let alone weeks before the holiday season.”
Stannington resident Christine Vickers said the elderly people she looks after in a sheltered housing block are worried about their electricity bills as they are using heaters to keep warm.
Ms Vickers said she had been into Lomas Hall, where Cadent and other agencies have set up a help centre, to ask about how the residents will get compensation for their electricity use.
“I’ve been saying to them: ‘Please use your heating, don’t get cold and you’ll get some compensation’,” she said. “But they are all worrying. They’re worrying about their bills.”
“We’re worrying because the temperatures are dropping quite drastically. We get a lot of snow up here in Stannington and they are forecasting snow. So, a lot of people are getting concerned that we’ve not showers and heating and everything for when the snow comes,” Ms Vickers added.
Additional reporting by PA
