Engineers have been working overnight to repair a damaged gas mains pipe that has left around 4,600 homes and other properties without gas supplies in south Devon.
The outage began on Saturday during freezing temperatures and has affected households in the Kingsbridge, Malborough and Salcombe areas. The disruption prompted an urgent response from Wales & West Utilities, which confirmed that the damaged mains pipe has now been repaired.
However, the company said restoring gas supplies is a complex process that requires engineers to visit every affected property twice. Each visit is needed first to safely turn off the gas supply and then to reconnect it once checks have been completed.
Wales & West Utilities said some customers could see their gas supply restored on Sunday, but warned that others may have to wait until Monday or Tuesday. Residents have been urged to “make every effort to be in” on Sunday as engineers go door to door across the affected areas.
Gwyn Thomas, from Wales & West Utilities, told BBC Radio Devon, “I am pleased to say our teams worked late into last night and managed to repair the main – so that first part of us getting the supply back has been completed.”
He added, “I’d like to assure people we have more than 100 engineers working in the area as we do need to visit every property that has a gas supply. Once that is completed, we will then be in a position to begin restoring supply to customers.”
Mr Thomas said the scale of the operation was significant, explaining, “We have got about 4,600 properties that were impacted by the loss of gas so it is quite a challenge.”
He continued, “The aim for today is that we can ensure that supplies are isolated. We will probably be looking at restoring some supplies today for some customers but it is likely that other customers will be looking at a return to supply on Monday and some possibly into Tuesday.”
Wales & West Utilities said it is prioritising vulnerable customers and thanked residents for their patience as engineers work to safely restore gas supplies across south Devon.
