AN Islandwide gas failure “in the depths of winter” would “almost certainly” have led to death among the elderly and vulnerable, a local charity head has said.

Ben Shenton, who chairs Age Concern, also urged the government to treat the ongoing gas outage as a “warning” and said they needed to “ensure this problem does not reoccur”.

A spokesperson for Island Energy, whose plant shut down at the weekend, admitted that the company had been “fortunate that this issue has coincided with a spell of good weather, reducing its potential impact on our customers”.

Mr Shenton spoke to the JEP following the announcement that Island Energy would not hit its Tuesday target to begin reconnecting over 4,000 homes and businesses to the gas network.

The energy company has continued to urge Islanders to switch off their gas supplies and fill in a form letting the utility firm know they have done so.

The reconnection delay means that some elderly residents could be without gas for nearly a week, after the outage was first noticed on Saturday morning.

Mr Shenton said the Island should be thankful for the warm weather and grateful that this month had not been as cold as some previous Octobers.

He added: “The government needs to ensure this problem does not reoccur. A failure of this magnitude in the depths of winter would almost certainly lead to hypothermia and death among the elderly and most vulnerable.

“We should perhaps consider ourselves fortunate that we have been given this warning.”

A spokesperson for Island Energy responded: “We would like to apologise to our customers again for the disruption to supply. We understand and appreciate that being without heating or hot water can be difficult, particularly for vulnerable people.

“We also recognise that we have been fortunate that this issue has coincided with a spell of good weather, reducing its potential impact on our customers.”

They added that while the issue had been resolved, “we must follow the correct procedure to restart supply, which does take some time”.

“We have been encouraging anyone with any concerns, either for themselves or others, to get in touch with us and have been working with the [States] police and the States of Jersey to ensure that vulnerable customers are prioritised,” they said.

Deputy Helen Miles, the minister with political responsibility for gas, said the shutdown was “entirely down” to Island Energy and that she was “disappointed and frustrated”.

She added that she was “concerned about vulnerable parishioners”.

The government has also pledged to commission a review to identify what went wrong and what lessons could be learned.

While engineers work to reconnect homes and businesses, the government have offered their support by opening up Les Quennevais Sports Centre for non-members who are without gas and would like access to hot water and showers.

A statement further said: “Please continue checking in on family members and neighbours who may be without hot water or heating.”

Island Energy has also published a form so that customers who require additional assistance and support can register for priority care. It can be found at islandenergy.je/priority-care.

With the continued disruption to gas supplies, any St Helier parishioners with concerns about their cooking and heating needs are also asked to contact their community services officer via email (jacqueline.jolley@sthelier.je) or by calling 811854.

Contact Age Concern if you are worried about an elderly neighbour, family or friend on 0800 735 0345.