Reading, MA –Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Gregory Burns and Deputy Police Chief David Clark report that National Grid has completed repairing a blocked gas main that caused an outage to a section of town last weekend.
Around 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 4, National Grid received several reports of gas outages in the area of Charles Street, Wakefield Street, Evergreen Road, Timberneck Road, Richards Road and Tamarack Road. The gas outage impacted 78 homes.
Reading Fire and Police, along with National Grid crews arrived on scene and began working to identify the issue. National Grid determined the gas main was blocked with water. The source of the water was found on Saturday, January 6 to be from a broken domestic water service on Charles Street. Both the gas main and domestic water service have been repaired.
From Thursday, Jan. 4 through Saturday Jan. 6 the water was removed from the main by National Grid. Due to the frigid temperatures the main did become blocked several times and this resulted in homes losing heat.
On Sunday Jan 7th several homes lost heat due to issues with individual gas meters freezing due to moisture within the gas main. National Grid responded by replacing impacted meters and or wrapping the meters with heat tape and insulation.
Reading Fire and Police, remained in the area until Sunday January 7.
Residents with questions or concerns should call the Reading Fire Department at 781-944-3132 and National Grid at 1-800-233-5325.
