Havant residents evacuated in gas leak drama
Up to 300 residents of a nine-storey block of flats were evacuated after a major gas leak in the early hours of today.
Residents from the 50 flats in Langstone House, West Leigh, were urged to vacate their homes by police and fire crews at 2am this morning.
The emergency services were alerted to the leak by one resident who could smell the gas.
Some residents went to stay with nearby friends and family while about 60 others, including babies and children, were taken to Horizon Leisure Centre in Havant where they spent the night.
Engineers traced the leak to a broken mains pipe which was repaired.
Tony Skinner, 60, a carer for wife Maureen, was one of those evacuated to the centre.
He said: 'I was sound asleep when I suddenly heard my neighbour hammering on the front door.
'They said "You've got to get out quickly, the building is being evacuated, there's a gas leak".
'I looked outside and there were police everywhere and gas vans.
'I got my wife up, got in a police van and they brought us here.
'I didn't know anything about it at all until they woke me up.'
Resident Paul Large, 50, who was also at the leisure centre this morning, said: 'I heard all the drilling through the night, all the racket.
'At 3am, the police started banging at my door saying there was a gas leak.
'I was in my pyjamas so I quickly got changed and dressed and me and my wife Alison walked down here.
'I was glad they got us out quickly. It must be serious. Everything is set up well here.
'We've had tea and coffee and they have given us all breakfast. I'm just looking forward to getting home.'
Fire crews from Havant were among those who were called to the scene and set up a 'rendezvous point' with police and ambulance crew at nearby St Alban's School, Havant. It took up to two hours to evacuate everyone.
Duncan MacDonald, spokesman for the Southern Gas Network, said: 'When we got there we did a series of readings and they were quite high - the decision was made there and then to evacuate the block.
'Our engineers tracked the leak to a broken gas main which has been quickly repaired.'
CENTRE OPENS TO HELP EMERGENCY OPERATION
Teams of volunteers and leisure have been praised for getting out of their beds to help the evacuated residents.
Dennis Brady, senior emergency planning officer at Hampshire County Council, said he called on the council's emergency volunteer team and 16 people turned up.
Staff from Horizon Leisure Centre, Havant, also came in during the early hours to look after residents who received a cooked breakfast this morning.
Centre manager Howard Broad said: 'We've got a fantastic team here that had their emergency system in place in a short space of time.
'We had a lot of our team in here by 3.45am getting the heating on and getting the catering under way.'
Gemma Palmer, 24, was with her eight-month-old son Keanu said: 'The police were good and told me not to panic as long as we got out quickly we would be find.'
Firefighter Michael Wearn said that if they had not got residents out it could have been dangerous.
He added: 'There was a strong smell of gas in the area. The main thing that we did was to evacuate the building.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
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