Extra support has been made available to residents affected by the widespread gas outage across an estimated 1,200 properties in the Richmond and Kew area.

Gas supplier Cadent confirmed on Thursday night that a burst water main had leaked into gas pipes in the TW9 postcode area, resulting in the gas supply having to be turned off at every affected property.

Heaters and hot plates were issued to some residents on Friday night from Cadent’s temporary base at Richmond Hill Hotel, while hot showers have been made available at Pools on the Park in Richmond for free during opening hours (7am-9pm), provided residents bring proof of address.

One elderly woman in Raleigh Road, Richmond, who asked to remain anonymous, told Richmond Times: “I am sitting with a small electric heater on and a hot water bottle.

“In my road, I know of two people aged 90+ but we have checked on them and several of us are in our 70s so it is not ideal to have no hot water and central heating for what looks like might be several days.

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“Tonight I was taken by a neighbour to the emergency centre at the Richmond Hill Hotel where we were offered heaters and also hobs for cooking if needed.”

Those affected by the outage will be entitled to compensation if without gas for more than 24 hours. Letters will be issued to all affected properties with further details.

In an update issued at 11.30am on Sunday morning, Cadent confirmed that around two-thirds of an estimated 1,200 properties have now had their gas supplies manually switched off – with a total of 35km of gas pipes to check and thousands of litres of water to be pumped out.

A statement read: “We have visited over two-thirds and have engineers from across London and across the country making visits to the remaining third today. We have left letters at each property we have been unable to access.

“We are in contact with the courts to arrange warrants to access properties we are unable to get into. We will make every effort to get in to properties without needing to do this.

“This is why you can really help by staying in, or arranging for someone to let us in. If you need to go out, maybe leave a key with a trusted neighbour or family member? But let us know if you are doing this.

“Our operational teams will work all day and into the night to resolve this as soon as possible. You’ll see our teams already at many strategic points across the affected area, ready to start pumping out water once they can safely do so.

“We continue to receive tremendous support from everyone in Richmond and many partner agencies are assisting in what is a difficult situation if you are off gas. Just to remind you, if you need to contact us: DM on Twitter @CadentGasLtd, ring 0345 835 1111.

“We’re trying hard to answer your questions coming in and have this morning updated both the FAQ and ‘areas affected’ tabs on this webpage, which hopefully cover the main things a lot of you have asked.

“Please bear with us and thanks for your patience. We responded quickly, and in large numbers, to an incident that wasn’t of our making, and we are doing our best to get you back on gas asap.”