A HASLEMERE family had to be evacuated overnight following a gas leak in St Christopher’s Road, in Wey Hill, Haslemere. on Wednesday last week.

Gas started to escape at around 4pm as a result of damage caused to a pipe during a power cut that cut off 49 properties. But it was not until midnight that the damaged pipe was located and made safe.

Engineers from UK gas distribution company SGN and electricity company SSE worked together to identify the source and restore services. A mobile ‘chuck wagon’ served up hot meals for residents left in the dark that night.

A SGN spokesman said: “There was an electrical cable fault which burnt one of our gas service pipes.

“This led to a small gas escape, so we attended site in our capacity as the local provider of the national gas emergency service.

“We made the situation safe at around midnight by disconnecting the pipe which was damaged.

“The pipe in question supplies gas to two properties, and as a result of the gas being turned off, the occupants of one of the homes were evacuated and spent the night in a hotel.”

A SSE spokesman said: “This was an underground cable fault which initially affected supplies to 32 properties. Our engineers attended site and isolated the supplies to a further 17 customers to allow SGN to work on the gas leak safely.

“Once the gas leak was repaired, we were able to attend site to carry out the repairs to our electricity cable.

“The supplies to all 49 customers were restored at 2.25am, on Thursday, April 20. We organised for welfare vehicles to attend site to provide hot drinks and support until supplies were restored. We would like to thank residents for their patience while we carried out these repairs.”