National Grid is saying ‘thank you’ to the people of Rossendale for their patience and support during the massive effort to restore gas supplies to 18,000 homes over the Christmas period.
Homes across the Rossendale Valley lost their supply on 22 December after gas caught fire during repair work on a 500mm medium pressure main in Rawtenstall, Rossendale in Lancashire.
Over 300 National Grid engineers were drafted in from across the country and efforts continued round the clock throughout Christmas until supplies were finally restored to homes in Bacup, Waterfoot, Newchurch, Rawtenstall and Crawshawbooth.
In total, over 60,000 individual visits were made to homes and businesses to ensure gas supplies were restored safely and engineers were overwhelmed by the level of support they got from local people.
National Grid’s Director of Operations Jon Butterworth said: “The people of Rossendale were absolutely fantastic and we can’t thank them enough for the help they gave our engineers.
“Engineers reported that they were being offered sandwiches and cups of tea and sherry and mince pies as they made their rounds, and many people were grateful and sympathetic that the engineers were sacrificing their own Christmas plans to get everyone re-connected.
“We were fortunate to be able to get the vast majority of homes back on gas for Christmas but would like to take the opportunity to apologise for the disruption we inevitably caused to people and their plans for the festive season.”
Letters have now been sent to homes and businesses affected explaining the arrangements for the payment of compensation. National Grid and Health and Safety Executive are working together on a full investigation of the incident.
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