MILFORD, Pa. — Truck after truck crisscrossed Milford on Friday as crews from UGI went door to door, turning natural gas meters back on and relighting pilot lights.
Homes and businesses in the Milford and Matamoras areas are beginning to thaw out, and so are the people who battled not having the heat on one of the coldest days so far this year.
UGI said the outage that started more than 24 hours earlier was caused by an equipment problem at a main hub where the natural gas comes before its sent on to homes and businesses.
"It was fixed almost concurrently with the time that we finish shutting off the meters, so we were able to gasify our system and then start to turn on last night, and our guys basically worked as long as they could through the night, until they had to take their break," said UGI official Don Brominski.
UGI says the hardest part of restoring service and relighting appliances is when no one is around to let crews in.
Phillip Galgan took time off from work to be home when the UGI crews came around.
"I sent my wife and kid to an Airbnb, and I stayed. Until now, this past two minutes before you got here, we had the gas turned on," Galgan said.
Most people we spoke with say it only took a matter of five to 10 minutes to get their appliances relit, but other people had some problems.
"Had a little difficulty with getting the furnace kicked on, so they called in a plumber, UGI did, and the plumber is at the house now fixing the furnace and just making sure it's working and they're covering the costs," Margaret Park said. "We're very satisfied."
UGI hopes to finish the restoration soon, but if you couldn't be there to let crews in to restore service, UGI says there's a way to help.
"If people want to dial our 800 number to let us know when they're going to be around, it's 800-276-2722, or you can reach out to us on the UGI Utilities Facebook page," Brominski said. "If you have a window of time when you know you're going to be home, let us know, and then we'll try our best to meet that."
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