Major incident in Stannington and Hillsborough: hundreds of Cadent engineers working to restore gas supply after large volume of water gets into gas pipes

Around 200 Cadent engineers and support staff are today continuing the major operation to restore gas supply after a huge volume of water entered the local gas network in Stannington and Hillsborough.
 
Since this incident began late on Friday night (2^nd December), following a burst water main in Stannington, Cadent’s teams have removed more than 750,000 litres of water from its gas pipes. The impacted area spans four miles, between Stannington and Hillsborough.
 
Up to 2,000 properties either lost gas or have been experiencing poor pressures.
 
With its engineers working day and night since then, Cadent restored gas supply to more than 40 per cent of the impacted properties by late yesterday (7^th December). It is hoped several hundred more will be back on gas today, and then the remainder by the weekend.
 
Richard Sansom, director of the Cadent network covering South Yorkshire, said: “While we do have water ingress from time to time, the scale and nature of this one makes it unprecedented.
 
“It’s highly unusual to see this volume of water pass through the gas meter and into homes. We’re finding that almost every property impacted has water in the internal pipes and all of that has to come out.
 
“Today we’ll continue to pump water out and – if we can make good progress on that – we should have many more homes back on gas.
 
“Having been here all week, and speaking to our customers every day, we know now incredibly difficult it’s been to be without gas. I can’t thank everyone enough for the way they’ve supported my team here, and for being so kind and understanding as we work hard to resolve this.”
 
Cadent has arranged for Gas Safe registered engineers to be available and positioned in the area to replace gas meters, where they need to be replaced, as well as have teams on hand to deal with any issues found with appliances. It has also been working with several local agencies to ensure support is provided to everyone, with a particular focus on those living in vulnerable situations.
 
The incident webpage www.cadentgas.com/sheffield is updated several times a day and includes further information, such as how to get in touch with the team on-site or by phone.