Homes without gas after water main 'floods pipes'
BBCAbout 3,000 homes and businesses in north London have no gas supply after water "flooded" into gas pipes.
A burst water main filled the gas network in the Muswell Hill area on Sunday, said Cadent, which manages the UK's National Gas Emergency Service.
The company issued a statement on Monday afternoon saying all customers on the priority services register and about a third of other properties will have been visited by the end of the day.
It said: "We think it will take us a few days to visit each property. We then have to remove the water from the gas network."
The statement continued: "Once this has been completed then we must visit every property again, to safely turn the gas supply back on.
"Our engineers will continue to knock on doors until around 10pm this evening. We find after this time, people are not comfortable answering their door so late at night."
It said if residents were not at home engineers would continue to visit each property a number of times to safely turn off the gas supply.
The company said the "large volume of water" meant supply had to be turned off at every affected property.
The areas without gas include Muswell Hill, Colney Hatch and Hornsey.
Cadent said a customer support team had been set up at Freehold Community Centre and people could use the Finchley Lido Leisure Centre to shower.
Lal Hardy, who runs a tattoo shop in Muswell Hill, told BBC London, said: "It's unprecedented for anything like this to happen around here.
"I've got an industrial heater at the shop, but if it looks like it's going to be long term, we're going to have to cancel all our customers.
"Communities always get through everything in the end, and we will get through this."
Ian Puddick, owner of a local plumbing company Leakbusters, described the removal of water as a "painstaking" job.
He said Cadent would work to remove water from the gas system in public areas, while private businesses would remove water from pipes in homes and offices.
He said: "In people's homes and offices, we will be taking any water that's in those pipes, inside the meter, and then recommissioning those appliances and getting their gas back on as soon as possible."
Affinity Water said that work to repair the burst water main began on Sunday afternoon.
"We've have rezoned the water, restoring the pressure to the area and you'll see your water flowing back to normal soon," it said on its website.
It added that discoloured or cloudy water was normal but customers could help by running the cold tap until the water was clear.
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