For the second consecutive evening residents of two blocks of flats on the Rerum Novarumplein in the East Flemish city of Ghent were forced out of their homes by a gas leak on Thursday. Although they were allowed back into their flats after a couple of hours the gas supply hadn’t been restored and they were forced to spend what was one of the coldest nights of the year without any heating. No gas also meant that those with gas cookers were unable to cook themselves a warm meal.
Ghent
Gas leak leaves 400 people in Ghent in the cold
Published:
On Wednesday evening several dozen residents from the two blocks of social housing flats in the were evacuated from their homes because of a gas leak. History repeated itself on Thursday evening, when at around 9pm someone once again reported smelling gas.
The Fire Service carried out checks and it was decided that 400 residents should be evacuated. Dirk De Sutter of the Ghent Local Police Service told VRT News that “They were able to come and wait at our police station and at around 11:30pm the levels were satisfactory enough for them all to be able to return to their homes”.
However, once they were back in their homes they face a cold night with no heating as the gas supply had been cut. On Friday morning the gas supply to the flats was gradually restored.