Homes evacuated as gas leak causes night of problems in Portsmouth
3/2/12 JN Gas leak on Tangier Road, Portsmouth causes disruption. Pictured are Police officers giving members of the public help in Tangier Road. Picture: Paul Jacobs (120408-3)
RESIDENTS have been allowed back into their homes after being evacuated more than 20 hours ago because of a gas leak.
The leak was discovered near Tangier Road, in Baffins, about 10 yards from the railway line where building work is taking place on an old bowling green.
It’s believed workers there hit a live gas main, damaging pipes and causing gas to escape.
The incident caused chaos for commuters as all trains in and out of the city were cancelled for four hours. Services later resumed with only diesel trains allowed to operate on the line. This continued to be the case until midday today.
Police were called shortly after 4.20pm and put up cordons to close part of Copnor Road around the railway bridge, as well as nearby residential roads, just as the busy rush hour was beginning.
Around 60 nearby homes were evacuated, and residents from nine properties had to stay away overnight.
Most stayed with family and friends, and a few were found alternative accommodation by Portsmouth City Council.
Residents from the nine properties, odd-numbered properties between 1 and 17 Tangier Road, have now been told they can return home.
James Pattie, 45, and his partner, who live in Tangier Road, were forced to spend the night in a bed and breakfast.
‘We saw all the police and firefighters turn up across the road and there was a terrible smell of gas,’ he said.
‘Then after half an hour they told us we had to leave, so we wandered around for two hours without knowing where to go.
‘It was freezing cold and it was lucky we bumped into a policeman who told us about a council shelter which had been set up nearby.
‘For a while it seemed like no-one knew what was going on.’
The Moneyfields Sport and Social Club, in Moneyfields Avenue, was turned into an evacuation shelter last night but was only visited by a handful of people.
Another rest centre was opened this morning at St Joseph’s Church Hall in Tangier Road, which operated until 11.30am when residents were allowed home.
Having been closed from the Eastern Road to Copnor Road, Tangier Road fully reopened to through traffic last night. Copnor Bridge also reopened in both directions last night.
Long tailbacks were reported during the incident as motorists tried to find alternative routes.
Trains were also effected and ran on a restricted service with replacement buses until midday.
Justin Melehi, 25, of Elm Grove, Southsea, was stranded at Hilsea station for 45 minutes after he had finished work.
‘It was very annoying and frustrating,’ he said.
‘These things always take so much longer to sort out than they should.
‘And on a Friday night after a busy week you just want to go home, not stand in the freezing cold for ages waiting for a taxi.’
Adam Barister, 22, of Foster Road, in Gosport, said: ‘I was already on the train when they told everybody to get off. That was the first I knew about it.’
Engineers from Southern Gas Networks worked throughout the night to fix the damage and have now resolved the problem.
Investigations are underway to find out how the damage was caused.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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Comments
There are 23 comments to this article
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TheDarkDeacon
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 11:53 PM@little al. It's not about politics it's about FACTS. No-one wanted this development. The people of Baffins struggle to park as it is. This will make things worse. It's so easy for people to make flippant comments and try to make out that people have an agenda to suit your own ends and hide your own agenda but FACTS will bear out any spurious claims. It's up to the individual to find them.
Little Al
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 06:10 PMHmmm, I do not like political engineering on this site, trying to improve the Tory image. Truth beknown the Tories in this city are bottleless, gutless and nearly to a man and woman, run scared of the Lib Dems. There are exceptions, but they are useless. On most days there is more methane gas and hot air being extruded around the City Offices than this current leak. Hope everyone is ok, by the way, takecare.
TheDarkDeacon
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 10:11 AMI spoke to the site manager of the site yesterday once we were allowed to return and during the digging of the footings for one of the houses they found a pipe which didn't appear on the plans given to them by the council. Once they had ascertained that it wasn't a water main they decided in their infinite wisdom just to remove the pipe. As I recall the Tories actually opposed the building on the site and only after another vote did the Lib Dems bully this through. May will be interesting in Baffins
Portsea Islander
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 11:54 PMthe housing development at the end of the road shouldn't be going ahead in the first place. the last thing we need in Baffins is more houses; there will be a higher demand on local public services, more parking difficulties and I can't remember any of us being consulted by the council on the matter in the first place. nice to see the council care about our views and opinions so much, especially when it's on our doorsteps. This ridiculous council is nothing but a bunch of bureaucratic clowns hell-bent on ruining our great city
oneblueear
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:10 PMMy concern is First they break a water main now a gas main and the state of repair of where they dug up the road, this site is a bunch of cowboys
JoeJimmyy
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 08:56 PMI live on copnor bridge the tangier side and was i was evacuated last night bit of a pain we was told we can go to money fields we was told to walk there but had a gas man saying we cant go that way and need to go back but luckily the person who told us we need to evacuate told that gas man. the builders seem to not know what there doing first they was digging the road up from 6pm till 1am on 2 occasions then accentually cut our water off and then cut the water pipe and flooded dover road now the gas :( its bad we could go back an hour at 21:30 so not to bad but we could smell it in southsea this morning. people where standing around watching it but its not like there was a fire or anything ::P
The Blossom
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 07:09 PMHas SIDIOUS blamed this gas leak on Fareham council yet?!
natabd
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 05:43 PMI was in a train going to Portsmouth yesterday with my colleagues and 66 children. We had to evacuate the train in Havant. Then we took a bus to Portsmouth harbor station. I would like here to thank all the people who encouraged us saying 'good luck' and also the railways station's staff who made everything possible to help us and to facilitate our end of travel. Thanks a lot everybody. Your kindness pleased us very much.
The Watcher....
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 04:56 PM@13 - Do you seriously think that the police would ask people to leave their homes and tell them to just 'go and find somewhere warm'? If you had any insight into the evacuation protocol then you would be aware of the finely honed action plan. Every area has a designated safe evacuation refuge where those present are updated with the current situation and given foodhot drinks. This is managed by the emergency planning team consisting of multiple agencies. Arrangements are even made to accommodate pets! These situations are often labile and change minute by minute so it is often difficult to give out accurate information in the early stages. So lets not just use this situation as a reason to have a dig at the police eh!
Tman
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 02:38 PMDunno about "these days" DMFM, it was ever thus. Don't really think gas is going to seep into the sealed motors etc of a moving diesel-electric train as it would be through the gas "cloud" in seconds...clearly they were more concerned with the arcing and sparking of the third rail causing explosions.
portsmouthgeezer
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 02:05 PMYes i heard about this last night hope they sorted the people out that were evacuated but im sure if the police couldnt even give you information the day after then im sure they stated last night to the people they took out there homes to find there own way to some where warm
seasidepie
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 01:18 PMStrange this is in Tangier Rd, it's only a matter of time before some residents begin to blame the Co-op and "dead bodies" for their predicament.
dmfm
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 01:15 PMA lot of modern diesel trains are actually electric trains with diesel powered generators, and the generators and electric motors are just as capable of generating sparks from the traction systems as electric trains - although they don't generate the same third rail pickup sparks. However, I was wondering if the people that decided diesel trains were "safe" took this into account - I can imagine a gas engineer thinking a diesel train is like a diesel lorry, where the diesel engine powers the drive wheels directly, rather than thinking of it as a the self contained mobile electric power station it actually is these days!
Freefall1
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:47 PMMichelle Littlewood, They police aren't a public information service and I am sure control of this situation was passed over to those more suited to deal with it hours ago. Someone sitting at a desk in Winchester can't exactly look out of the window and see what's going on.
Tman
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:23 PMI wonder what you'd have posted Mike if someone had been hurt in an explosion? Would you be quite so critical then then? Comparing this situation to the Blitz is bizarre too....
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