Thousands of people in Scotland could be without gas for days due to a mass mains failure which has seen more than eight thousand properties affected.
Due to safety concerns gas infrastructure company SGN said it will have to go door-to-door to turn off supplies in affected properties.
Engineers were visiting properties until 11pm last night and had managed to canvas around 1,000 households.
Temperatures in central Scotland will remain below zero over the coming days and many are concerned for the welfare of the elderly and vulnerable.
Gas engineers vans assisting with the distribution of heaters and hotplates at Camelon community centre, Falkirk
Eight thousand properties are affected, with Gas infrastructure company SGN saying it will have to go door-to-door to turn off supplies (workers boxing up heaters, above)
Today fourteen schools and education establishments will be closed across the Falkirk Council area.
Officials said they will be working closely with SGN to help those affected by the gas issues.
This is while SGN also claimed it would be providing electric heaters and cookers for those with young children, the elderly and the chronically sick.
In a statement, the company said a fault in a piece of equipment that regulates pressure in the gas network was to blame.
A van is seen parked up in the Falkirk area (above) as it does the rounds delivering heaters to those in need
A Fire & Rescue Service van is pictured above being loaded as the fire department assist in the distribution of heaters
‘While we repair the gas governor, we need to visit all affected properties to turn off your gas supply at the meter and we’ll need access to your home to turn off your gas supply,’ SGN said.
‘It will take us some days to reach everyone so if you do need to pop out or go to work, it would be helpful for us if you’re able to leave a key with a neighbour.
‘With so many homes affected, it’s likely you could be without your gas supply for several days. We’re sorry for the inconvenience this will cause. We’re doing all we can to restore gas supplies to the area as soon as possible.’
Falkirk Council said it had alerted housing and social work services to be on stand-by to support SGN.
Letter from SGN to customers at Camelon community centre, Falkirk after the gas mains failure
Gas engineers taking heaters out to vulnerable people. Schools will be closed on Monday
St Mungo’s High School and Larbet High School will be closed today, along with nine primary schools and three other learning facilities.
‘We have a list of vulnerable people in the area so we know were people who may have the most difficulty are,’ a spokesman said.
He added that all care homes in affected areas are currently fine.
‘We are ready to support SGN in any way we can,’ he said.
Scott McLean, 42, lives in Larbert and was one of those at Camelon Community Centre to pick up supplies.
He said he was awoken at 4am yesterday by his boiler ‘vibrating and going crazy’.
He said: ‘I’d been out for a Christmas night out and got to bed at two in the morning. So at 4am in the morning I was having a drunken conversation with my dog about what to do about the problem, but he didn’t have any ideas, so I just switched the boiler off and went back to bed.
‘We have a WhatsApp group with my neighbours and people started saying they had the same problem and I knew then it wasn’t just my boiler on the blink.’
Mr McLean’s three children will not be able to attend school today due to the closures.
‘We’ll have to work out what we can cook in the microwave, and now with this hotplate, so we’ll rustle meals together and get plenty of duvets down in the living room and have plenty of movies for the kids,’ he said.
‘It’s all of us coming together. Everybody is clubbing together to get the street through it.’
