A natural gas outage near Tabernash sent Xcel Energy workers scrambling last Thursday, Feb. 4, to repair problems and relight furnaces as over 100 customers found themselves without heat for most of the day.

According to Michelle Aguayo with Media Relations for Xcel Energy the initial outage started at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning and was caused by problems with a high-pressure natural gas station. The outage affected 112 customers and forced Xcel Energy workers to shut off service to homes before making repairs.

After repairs were completed technicians then began the process of going back and relighting furnaces in homes. Customers could not be contacted for some residences. To prevent water pipes from freezing in those circumstances locksmiths were used to open residences with deputies from the Grand County Sheriff’s Department standing-by. Xcel Energy workers then entered the residences to relight furnaces.

According to Aguayo Xcel’s last update from on-scene technicians Thursday night was received around 8 p.m. when 28 premises remained to be relit.

“They expected to be done around midnight,” she said.

Echo Zoyiopoulos, a teacher at Middle Park High School and a resident in the affected area, woke up Thursday morning to a very cold residence and no hot water. According to Zoyiopoulos it was fifteen below zero early Thursday morning in the highlands above Tabernash where she and other Xcel customers affected by the outage live. Zoyiopoulos said her service was back on by the time she arrived home from work.