Freezing families endure SIXTH day with no heating trends now

Cold and bitter Britons have endured their sixth day without heating after a burst water main left 2,000 homes without gas - as an Arctic cold snap dubbed the 'Troll of Trondheim' batters the country.

Families in the Stannington area of Sheffield have not been able to heat their homes or cook hot meals since Friday after more than 400,000 litres of water from a burst pipe leaked into a gas main - just as temperatures across the UK plunged below zero.

Residents have now endured blackouts after trying to keep warm by plugging fan heaters into their homes, overloading the grid.

IS YOUR HOME CURRENTLY WITHOUT GAS BECAUSE OF THE COLD WEATHER? Email [email protected] 

Philippa Williamson, who lives with her multiple sclerosis sufferer partner Lyndon Webster close to the flooding incident, said: 'Since Friday, we've had no heat, no light and no hot water. And the day before yesterday the electricity was just flickering, but last night, we also had a power cut.

'My mum died and it was the funeral on Tuesday. I've had to hold a funeral in the village in a chapel that was freezing and the wake in a school room.'

Philippa, a registered nurse, said she had been able to work from home in her three-bed semi-detached property following the outage, despite being very chilly. She said: 'It's cold. 

'I've been working in my study with a fan heater on, with two pairs of trousers on and a pair of tights, a t-shirt, a jumper and a cardigan. And I did a call with a bobble hat and blanket around me. It's ridiculous. 

'The fan heaters are not really warm - and we're only supposed to heat one room at a time.'

Mother-of-three Kirsty Ellin, 41, who works in a children's hospital, said her six-year-old asthmatic son and 15-year-old anorexic daughter were both suffering due to the cold. She said: 'My son suffers from asthma quite badly. He was ok for a while, but on the fifth night, he was non-stop coughing.

'My daughter suffers from anorexia. If her body goes down in temperature, she can get quite ill, so we've been trying to keep her warm.

She added: 'We can't sleep. We get up at 5am every night just because it's so cold.

'I'm not happy with using the extra electricity. It should be reimbursed by the energy supplier. We've had to turn off the Christmas lights on the tree to save electricity, to save power. There's no Christmas spirit.'

Kirsty, like Philippa, said she had no indication when her gas might be restored but was having to stay home in case engineers suddenly turned up at her door. She said: 'Somebody told me it could be weeks, somebody told me it could be days. We are being kept in the dark at the minute.

'I definitely feel there should have been a faster reaction. But we are a small village located in Sheffield. I could understand if we hadn't been found sooner.

Retired nurse David Smith, 67, who lives alone praised the reaction of Gas distribution company Cadent Gas while blasting utility supplier Yorkshire Water for not doing more to help.

He said: 'Cadent Gas, the affected company, has been absolutely outstanding.. They've been here all hours, 24 hours a day, to restore the supply.

'But Yorkshire Water have not been seen they have been notable by their absence. I'm going to lodge a complaint. They fixed the water leak then they walked away.'

David has been lucky that he had his power supply restored on Tuesday (Dec 6), but said he had still suffered blackouts due to chilly residents plugging in space heaters.

He said: 'The power supply has been dropping out. But I feel sorry for the people of Malin Bridge and Hillsborough. They still haven't got an engineer there.'

It comes as Yorkshire Water defended its

read more from dailymail.....