Gas-cut residents have spent a freezing night after electricity cut too (From Times Series)

Gas-cut residents have spent a freezing night after electricity cut too

2:02pm Wednesday 23rd December 2009 in

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RESIDENTS left without gas since Sunday are now shivering in the cold after their electricity went off too.

At least one East Barnet Street has been without electricity since just after 8pm last night.

A total of 180 homes in Crescent Road, East Barnet have no power, heating or hot water at all.

Mother of three Sarah McTeare said her family were facing a miserable Christmas in the freezing temperatures.

“My little girl Rachel, 6, called up the chimney last night to ask Father Christmas for gas and electricity,” she said.

“That's what they want for Christmas. When the lights went off she started crying. Declan's got a cold and runny nose. All three of them are scared of the dark and I couldn't get them to sleep until 10pm.”

Now Sarah, 37, Declan, 3, and Cameron, 8, are huddling together trying to keep warm, while her husband, Andy, 38, is able to keep warm at work.”

Mrs McTeare said: “I just think it's ridiculous because whenever there's any kind of extreme weather there's all these problems.

“Nobody's come round to us or written to us or anything.

“We only found out about the crisis centre in St Mary's Church because we were walking through the village.”

Cameron said he and his sisters had been keeping occupied by playing Snap and guess the Christmas tree decoration.

Over the road pensioner Pat Gandy, who is in her 80s, and her next door neighbour, also a pensioner, are camped out in one room with a portable gas cannister heater.

She said she also had not had any help from the gas or electric companies.

Instead a neighbour arranged for the hire and delivery of the heater.

She said: “Everybody's been very good, they're all looking after everyone else.”

Another resident Brian Wilmot said: “I've had one and half hours of electricity in two days. They're fixing nothing. There's supposed to be 60 blokes in this street, can you see 60 blokes?”

This is the second time the street has been without power this week, after the system was overloaded after people turned to electricity when they had no gas.

The company said in a statement the distribution of electric fires by National Grid had put a “significantly higher demand on the local electricity network” and damaged some of EDF Energy's equipment.

“Our engineers are currently working to restore electricity supplies to about 180 customers in the East Barnet area as quickly as possible.

"The majority of these customers have been without electricity since 8.30pm yesterday. We have staff in the area and our customers advisers are also providing the latest information to customers affected, by telephone.

“We have worked throughout the night and are working on site again today to ensure that electricity supplies in East Barnet remains as stable as possible while National Grid effect their repairs.”

Several residents said they had been told that the electricity company, EDF Energy, had decided not to switch the power back on until gas has been restored, because they fear another power surge will cause more damage to the network.

“We do appreciate how difficult it has been for those without heat and light in such freezing conditions and would like to thank customers for their help understanding.”

“We would like to assure customers we working closely with National Grid to resolve gas and power issues in the areas affected.”