BBCA secondary school has closed due to a major gas outage affecting 4,600 properties.
More than 100 Wales and West Utilities engineers have been responding in the Kingsbridge, Malborough and Salcombe area of the South Hams in Devon following damage to a mains pipe on Saturday.
Kingsbridge Community College said the school would be closed with lessons continuing online while the South Hams Minor Injury Unit had also shut.
Gwyn Thomas, from Wales and West Utilities, said it began restoring supplies to the Malborough area on Sunday while work to restore supplies in Kingsbridge began earlier. He said damage to a pipe would be “subject to investigation”.
Thomas said engineers had been unable to gain access to a “high number of properties” on Sunday to isolate gas supplies, which meant engineers had to keep revisiting properties.
“It’s been quite an operation to visit all these properties,” he said.
He urged people who own or look after second homes to get in touch to help engineers access properties.
The Mayor of Kingsbridge, Julia Wingate, said the cold weather “compounds the problem”, and added electric heaters and cooking hot plates were being given out to people in the community.
She said the community had been “really caring”, which she said was “really important”.
“Even if you are all right and you are at home with with the heater, it’s still nice to see a friendly face at the door,” she said.
“If you are struggling, please call us and we will do our best to make sure you’re warm.”
Town clerk Katherine Harrod has been helping hand out heaters, hot plates and warm packs at Quay House in Kingsbridge.
She said it had been a busy morning but they were keeping up with demand, and could visit homes if needed.
“We are doing everything as quickly as we can, working with all the different authorities and we think it’s going as well as it possibly can,” she said.
“Don’t sit there in the cold, please contact us… We can help.
“We are here all day and all week until this is sorted.”
The University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust said the South Hams Minor Injury Unit had temporarily closed due to the outage.
“We have taken the decision to close the minor injury unit at South Hams hospital until the situation is resolved,” it said.
“The temporary closure only affects the minor injury unit at the hospital, inpatient services at the hospital are running as normal.”
The trust said an alternative minor injury unit was available at Tavistock Hospital and its urgent treatment centres at Derriford Hospital and the Cumberland Centre in Plymouth.
On Sunday, Wales and West Utilities said the majority of properties in Malborough, had been isolated and this was the first area where supplies can be restored.
It said engineers had visited 90% of the 4,600 impacted properties.
