It's 11pm on a January Tuesday. You walk into the bathroom and water is pouring through the ceiling. Or it's -2°C outside and the boiler has locked out. Or you can smell gas in the kitchen.
What you do in the next 10 minutes matters more than how fast our engineer arrives. Here's the exact step-by-step emergency checklist we tell every Lancashire customer who phones our 24/7 line — whether you're in Burnley, Blackburn, Preston or anywhere we cover.
🚨 If you can smell gas — STOP and read this first
- Don't turn lights on or off. Don't flick switches. Don't use the phone in the room with the smell.
- Open windows and doors immediately to ventilate.
- Turn the gas off at the meter (yellow handle, turn 90° to horizontal).
- Leave the building. Take pets if you can.
- From outside, call the National Gas Emergencies line: 0800 111 999 — they will dispatch an emergency engineer free of charge to make safe.
- Once made safe, call us on 07475 978 821 to repair and re-commission.
This is the ONLY emergency where you call the national line BEFORE us. They cover all of Lancashire 24/7 free of charge for gas safety.
💧 Burst pipe / major leak
Step 1: Stop the water (60 seconds)
Find your internal stopcock. Common locations in Lancashire homes:
- Under the kitchen sink (most common)
- In the cupboard under the stairs
- In the garage near the front of the house
- In old Burnley terraces: under floorboards inside the front door
Turn it clockwise until it stops. If it won't turn (seized) — go outside and find the external stopcock: small metal cap in the pavement marked “W” or “Water”. You may need a long-handled key (your neighbours often have one).
Step 2: Stop the boiler & heating
- Turn off the boiler at the spur fuse (red switch next to it).
- Turn off any immersion heater (red switch in airing cupboard).
- This prevents the boiler from pumping out heated water through the leak.
Step 3: Drain the system if you can
- Open every hot AND cold tap in the house — runs the system dry quickly.
- Open the lowest tap last to let air in (usually downstairs basin).
Step 4: Catch & contain
- Buckets, washing-up bowls, towels under any active drip.
- Move electricals away from water (laptop, TV, lamps).
- Take photos for insurance.
Step 5: Call us
24/7 emergency: 07475 978 821. We aim to be on-site in 60–120 minutes across Lancashire.
🔥 No heating in freezing weather
Less urgent than a leak, but in -2°C weather with elderly relatives or babies in the house, it qualifies as an emergency.
- Check the boiler display. Any fault code? Write it down — saves us 10 minutes of diagnostics.
- Check pressure. Below 0.5 bar? The boiler has locked out. Re-pressurise to 1.2 bar via the filling loop.
- Check the condensate pipe. White plastic pipe leaving the boiler outside. If frozen (common in Lancashire valleys overnight), pour warm (not boiling) water over it for 5 minutes.
- Press reset on the boiler — once only. If it locks out again, leave it.
- Call us if heating doesn't restore within 30 minutes of these checks.
While you wait: close internal doors, run a fan heater (max 30 min on, 30 min off), wear thermals, fill hot-water bottles from the kitchen kettle.
🚰 Blocked drain causing flooding
- Stop using ALL water in the house (no flushing toilets, no taps, no washing machine).
- If sewage backing up — call us on 07475 978 821. We have a high-pressure jetter.
- Don't try drain cleaner — it can make jetting harder and is dangerous if it splashes back.
What our 24/7 call-out covers in Lancashire
- Coverage: All 15 areas we serve — Burnley, Padiham, Nelson, Colne, Brierfield, Clitheroe, Accrington, Blackburn, Preston, Bury, Rochdale, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, Bacup, Todmorden.
- Response time: 60–120 minutes from your call to engineer on-site.
- Cost: £120 emergency call-out (24/7 rate), plus parts/labour at fixed-price quote.
- Payment: Card, cash, or bank transfer. No upfront deposit for emergencies.
Save these numbers in your phone NOW
- Gas leak (national): 0800 111 999
- Gas Tech 24/7 emergency: 07475 978 821
- Gas Tech standard: 01282 914 044
More about our 24/7 emergency cover · Book a non-emergency callout