A major gas leak occurred in West Sussex at 12:21am on Wednesday 6 January, prompting a full-scale emergency response. The incident has been officially declared a major incident, with numerous agencies mobilised to contain the hazard.
Approximately 700 residents were evacuated from their homes and relocated to temporary shelters as emergency crews worked urgently to secure the area. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported during the evacuation.
Sussex Police are leading the response alongside West Sussex Fire and Rescue, South East Coast Ambulance Service, West Sussex County Council, Crawley Borough Council, and Southern Gas. These agencies are collaborating closely to resolve the situation as quickly and safely as possible.
Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Rayland commented on the ongoing incident: “This is an ongoing incident which has caused huge disruption to hundreds of people on a cold January morning, and I’d like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we continue to work with our partners to minimise the ongoing disruption.”
He added, “We are working hard to ensure this is dealt with as soon as possible to enable everyone to return home, however this may take several hours yet. In the meantime, we are urging everyone to stay away from the area to allow the responding agencies to focus on resolving the incident to allow residents to return home.”
Regarding the cause of the leak, Detective Chief Superintendent Rayland said, “The exact cause of the gas leak is yet to be determined but not believed to be criminal, and we will provide more information as soon as we are able to.”
Originally published by UKNIP.
