Anyone on here affected by the Falkirk gas cut off?

[bellinisurge]

Heaters distributed as gas supply fault continues www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-50624237

This looks pretty horrible for anyone caught up in it. We had a boiler breakdown in the middle of winter for a couple of days when dd was a baby and that was grim but we had nearby family to help out. It looks here like anyone's nearby family is likely to be affected too.
I'm a general prepper (the boiler breakdown was one of the events that prompted me) and so I kid myself I would be ok in this situation but I think the reality is that it must be really tough- especially if you have a vulnerable family member.

Thankfully just outside the zone, but miserable for those in it. Schools are off too - however, would it not be safer and easier to warm one school and feed kids hot food there than send them all home to cold houses?

Not me but elderly parents, family and friends are affected. Hoping that people pull together and help each other out especially as some areas had a power cut too!

Power cut too? How horrible.

Yes we’ve been lucky and have some residual gas which means some heat at least. Looks like our gas will go off completely now though.

Pubs, churches and schools are providing soup and sandwiches and heat, gyms are making shower facilities available. Could go on until the weekend but thankfully it’s not as cold today.

My family are fine--3 heaters delivered today and gas back on. Hope you are reconnected Cazzy?

The gas company really have been working round the clock - they started reconnecting yesterday and are working through all the houses.

It must be unpleasant but not the crisis they seem to be making out. I grew up without any heating in my attic bedroom and survived.

Yes but not having heating in one room is not the same as having no form of heating in a whole house.

My first childhood home had a coal fire in the main room but no other heating and it was cold, properly cold! Ice on the inside of the window cold.
We did get a calor gas heater which we used to move from room to room and got into the habit of putting it in a room about 1/2 an hour before we were going to use it which helped. Oh gosh though I remember the dread of the thought of pulling back the covers on the bed in the morning.

It highlights several things - a single point of failure in the gas network that failed when temperatures were low. Low temperatures are not unusual in this part of the UK. Some parts of the electricity supply failed because of the increased demand from running electric heaters.

Households on low incomes with pre-payment meters often can’t afford to then use electric fan heaters. It’s a much more expensive way of providing heat.

More most of us it was unpleasant but not a crisis. For anyone elderly, young babies, with some illnesses and disabilities, it could be a crisis. Imagine having chemo, already struggling with the side effects and feeling cold then you lose hearing and hot water when it’s already pretty cold outside. Or already living in a cold, damp property with asthma or COPD.

I’m old enough to remember going to bed with thermals on, hat, gloves and ice inside the windows. It was horrible.