Stannington: Cadent announces every Sheffield home in major incident area now reconnected to gas mains

It has been 14 days since a Yorkshire Water high-pressure mains pipe in Stannington burst and tore into gas pipes belonging to Cadent Gas Ltd. The disaster caused water to pour into the gas supply, knocking out heating for more than 3,000 homes in the area, leaving thousands of people without hot water and even electricity in some cases. Even as work began immediately to repair it, some households were left in the cold during this past week’s sub-zero temperatures.

Now, Cadent has confirmed is has now restored supply to every property impacted by the unprecedented ‘gas flood’. More than 1.5million litres of water were pumped out of the gas pipes over the past week as every house needed to have their supply reconnected manually.

In a statement today, director for Cadent Gas in the region Richard Sansom revealed the true number of affected properties was over 3,000, where it was previously thought to be less than 2,000.

He said: “After a monumental effort by a big team from Cadent and other agencies, we have gas restored now to every property.

“It’s an incredible achievement, working day and night since this started two weeks ago, and in freezing temperatures.

“I want to offer a huge thanks to everyone in Stannington, Malin Bridge, Hillsborough and other areas impacted by this.

“Despite the personal challenge to you, the kindness and support you’ve given to us throughout has been incredible. Thank you.

“You unexpectedly had to deal with your local population being increased by several hundred people overnight and then for two weeks. You made us feel amazingly welcome and appreciated, despite the issues you were facing because you had no gas.

“We’ve removed more than one million litres of water from the gas pipes in an area that covered four miles. While we do get ‘water ingress’ incidents like this occasionally, the volumes we’re talking about here are way above the norm.

“We can also confirm that more than 3,000 properties were impacted, whether by loss of gas completely, poor pressures or damage caused to boilers and appliances.

“We know there are still pockets of water moving around, under your feet, which is why some properties that we’ve put back on gas are intermittently going off again. This is part of the reason for us maintaining a presence in the area, for a good while yet, so we can act quickly when this happens.

“We are also very conscious that, for some people, the water has impacted their boilers and other appliances. We are working with everyone who has found themselves in this position, to make sure the arrangements are made to fix these, or replace them.

Compensation, in some cases topping well over £1,000, will also be automatically paid to affected customers and businesses.

Questions now remain about what will be done to prevent future serious leaks like this in Sheffield, with concerns over its aging water pipes.