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SaskEnergy crews will continue going door-to-door to restore service Thursday following a gas line rupture in the area around Melfort.
The rupture occurred between Weldon and Birch Hills, which caused about 4,500 customers to lose service in Melfort, Kinistino and St. Brieux.
Dave Burdeniuk, spokesperson for SaskEnergy said repairs have been completed on the broken transmission line and crews made “significant” progress restoring services to individual homes and businesses.
“But we know we’ve got a lot of very, very cold people,” he said, adding crews are working quickly knowing over half the affected customers are heading into a second day without service.
With gas flowing again, 40 technicians are checking every home and business to help re-light and restart natural gas appliances.
Burdeniuk explains it’s a tedious process that takes time to complete.
“There’s nothing we can do remotely.”
“Imagine pushing water through a very, very small garden house and expecting water to come out the other end. It’s taking time to pressurize the system.”
Burdeniuk estimated the heat would be back on for all affected customers later in the day Thursday.
In situations where customers are not present, the company is working with the RCMP and locksmiths to gain access to properties in order to prevent pipes from freezing.
This is the largest outage in the province’s history. Officials say the biggest outage before was in 2008 when 800 customers lost service.
SaskEnergy has tips on what to do during a natural gas outage, and contact information for those needing further assistance is available on the website.
Customers can also contact the company by phone at 1-888-7000-GAS (427).