Desperate residents are being driven to tears in icy conditions after being left without heating for a week.
Up to 2,000 homes in the Stannington area of Sheffield are now fearing for their lives in some cases ahead of an arctic blast set to sweep across the UK.
It comes after a burst water pipe incident last Friday, December 2, which flooded into a gas main.
The leak was stopped but water is still being cleared out - and many are still without gas while temperatures are dropping below zero degrees at night.
Sheffield City Council declared a major incident earlier this week after the incident spread to Hillsborough and Malin Bridge.
Engineers from Cadent Gas have been working around the clock to try to resolve the issue, but many residents have still been facing freezing homes during one of the coldest weeks of the year, reports Yorkshire Live.
Residents have had to find elsewhere to go and cook, shower, stay warm, and more. Forge Valley School nearby has been open over the weekend for people to go and shower and will remain so in the coming weekend.
The streets of Stannington, lined with frost from a December week that saw temperatures dip below freezing, are still full of works where water is being pumped out.
Resident Terry Howell said: "We are affected, we still haven’t got the boiler on, no central heating or hot water since last Friday night. My wife is frantically stressed, it’s really getting to her. We even went away for a couple of days to the kid's house in York just to get a hot bath, keep warm and have a shower - it’s good of relatives but you want your privacy don’t you.
“Two lads came last night and they actually got the boiler going for a couple of hours then it went off again, they stayed till about 11.45pm, but then something went wrong with it and they said they would have to get an engineer out to dismantle the boiler and find the fault. It’s only a new boiler, it’s three years old and it cost us at least a couple of grand then.”
Dad Jamie said when he looked at his thermostat today it read just eight degrees. When he got back from work he found his children, aged three and four, asleep in bed fully clothed.
Another resident, mum-of-two Amy, said she'd been lucky enough to get her gas back on on Monday night, but had found the weekend without it very difficult. Amy, who struggles with her mental health and mobility and therefore is classed as vulnerable, said it has been stressful for everyone.
"It's affected me really badly," she said. "It was so freezing, me and my two kids had the electric heater we were allowed on in one room and stayed in there all day.
"I've never seen anything on this scale. It's ridiculous. It was so cold I wanted to cry - the kids were under blankets fully clothed all day, I was wearing two pairs of pyjamas and a dressing gown. We pulled spare mattresses into my bedroom and we all slept in there to keep as warm as possible while it was off."
University student Eleanor Hall, 20, said the community had come together over the gas outages, as they were all in similar situations. The streets and social media have been full of people offering warm food and spaces where they can.
Locals have been using the Stannington Facebook group to offer their showers up if their gas is back on or if their showers are electric. Heaters and hot plates are being distributed at the local emergency hub at Lomas Hall.
Northern Powergrid are offering food vans in the area with hot food for residents. Cadent Gas are also handing out packs to help vulnerable people.
Hillsborough Leisure Centre and Forge Valley School have both opened up to offer somewhere warm and places to shower. There are more hot food vans dotted around the area.
Residents have been praising the Cadent engineers for their work in the area. Nicola said: "The work men are absolutely doing their best, they are working really hard. Northern Powergrid provided us with a pack the other night because our electricity went.”
A press conference hosted on Thursday, December 8, heard from Yorkshire Water, Cadent Gas and Sheffield City Council.
Some residents at the press conference accused Yorkshire Water of 'not taking the incident seriously', which Yorkshire Water apologised for.
Neil Dewis, director of water for Yorkshire Water, said at the press conference: "Our immediate priority is to support Cadent in getting everybody back on to gas supplies. We’ll then be working with Cadent on looking at the compensation for customers and any loss adjustment that needs to be made. The priority is getting customers on and to support the efforts that are going on the ground at the moment."
He added that the water main that burst was an asbestos-cement main from 1970, and that they are still investigating the reason for the burst. Mr Dewis also said Yorkshire Water has invested £15m into Sheffield to reduce leaks
Richard Sansom, Cadent’s network director for East Midlands, said at the press conference that it was important just to get people back on, and that he was confident 1,000 people would be reconnected by the weekend.
When Sheffield Council declared a major incident on Wednesday, council leader Terry Fox said: "The Council has decided to declare the gas supply issues in Stannington and surrounding areas as a major incident. Over the weekend we were alerted to a contained situation and have been assisting Cadent as best we can. 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."
Yorkshire Water have since clarified how residents can request compensation.
Zoe Burns–Shore, customer experience director at Yorkshire Water, said: “We’re sorry about the ongoing impact this burst water main has had and understand how difficult it has been for residents in Stannington and Hillsborough.
“We don’t want any customers to worry about compensation for any costs they’ve had to incur, so we’ve created a form on our website to make it as easy as possible to get in touch with us. We’ve also set up a phoneline for anyone who doesn’t have access to the internet. You don’t need to get in touch with us straight away: we know everyone will be busy right now and want to reassure everyone we’ll be here to work through any claims.
“We also want to make sure we’re getting help out right away to anyone who is struggling. If you, or a neighbour, need some extra support while the gas supply remains off, please ring Sheffield Council on 0114 2734567 so we can get you the help you need.”
