FIREFIGHTERS saved Yate residents from a potentially dangerous gas leak – showing that crews “still need to be based” at the town’s station at night.

Crews from Yate, Patchway and Kingswood fire stations rushed to Blaisdon just before 7pm on Saturday after an estate agent accidentally ruptured a pipe beneath a garden.

Resident Katie Hills, 34, had just arrived home from holiday when she smelled gas outside her house and, after her boyfriend Ashley Cheesley also noticed the odour, she called for help.

“I began to panic and called the emergency gas number but nobody answered,” she told the Gazette. “I went to my neighbour in my nightie to warn them and we called 999. I was willing the firefighters to ‘please hurry’ and they were here in five minutes.

“I was hysterical thinking it was a problem at my house and that I was seconds away from causing a serious accident. There is a public footpath at the front of the house and I knew it would only take one match for the houses to blow.

“A security light kept flashing on and off and each time I would think that that was it, everything would be gone.”

The fire crews evacuated the row of houses and led the residents to safety.

A Transco gas board engineer was called and found that a gas pipe had been ruptured when an estate agent from Edison Ford hammered a ‘to let’ sign into the ground.

Katie said: “The fire teams were so professional. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise and it could have been worse. Their services are invaluable especially with more houses being built in the area.”

Avon Fire and Rescue Service is currently considering plans to make Yate Fire Station unmanned between 5pm and 8am, with retained firefighters on-call in case of emergencies.

This would see full-time crews based at the station only during the day, in a move calculated to save the fire service £5million a year until 2020.

Residents, councillors and firefighters have spoken out against the move, saying it could lead to job losses and would inevitably increase the time it takes crews to respond to emergencies at night as they would have to travel to the station before then heading out. Blaisdon resident Ryan Wilson said the rapid response to the gas leak “shows that overnight fire services are needed and not just a nine to five service – they still need to be based there 24/7”.

Gary Spindler, from the Avon Fire Brigade Union, said: “We believe that removing whole-time fire cover at Yate Fire Station from 5pm to 8am is a move that will increase the time it takes for us to respond. This can only increase the risk to not only the public, but also to the firefighters.”

But Deputy Chief Fire Officer for the area, Lorraine Houghton, responded: “There will continue to be a night time service provided from the station – this incident demonstrates why a round-the-clock capability is needed in the town. “Our Integrated Risk Management Plan suggests using on-call firefighters at night instead and we are committed to providing a 24-hour response from Yate Fire Station.”

Commenting on the ‘to let’ sign causing the gas leak, Edison Ford manager Steve Clowes said: “Having been established for over 25 years, we have never encountered a situation like this before.

“There have been many signs erected in lots of gardens by us and other agents. We have yet to establish what was different about the garden of this house.”