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National Grid Mobile Command Unit

Following an explosion at major gas main in December 2008 at nearby in Townsend Fold Link an emergency command centre was set up at Tor View School above.

With the incident happening two days before Christmas around 300 engineers worked "around-the-clock" to restore services.Link
Work to repair the damaged gas pipe was completed on Tuesday 23rd of December, but engineers had to re-pressurise and test the system, as well as checking each of the 18,000 individual properties.

Director of operations Jon Butterworth said "This was a mammoth task but local people were fantastic I want to apologise for the inconvenience but also to thank people for their patience while we have been fixing the problem, and also for letting us into their homes during the night to get their gas supplies on for Christmas".

The blast on Monday morning the 22nd of December left 18,000 homes without gas and 17,000 without electricity in the Bacup, Waterfoot, Rawtenstall, Newchurch and Crawshawbooth areas.
SD7921 : Tor View School