Lack Of Heating Oil Means Many Schools Have To Close Their Doors

After the Christmas holidays, hundreds of schools have not reopened as the cold weather has forced them to keep their doors shut. The fact that there is a shortage of heating oil or gas is the main reason behind the closure of most of these schools. Thieves were the reason for one school being closed as their oil supplies had been stolen over the holidays.

In order to keep heating systems running efficiently over the holidays, many schools were forced to keep their heating systems on. Because of this a lot of schools had much less oil when they returned for business and now emergency deliveries of heating oil are eagerly awaited. Some schools even had to close due to their oil supply pipes being frozen. Most of us have been taken by surprise by the length of this period of cold weather and the fact that the snowfalls have been so heavy. There are no signs of improvement for the immediate future and snow has been lying in many areas across the country for nearly three weeks now.

The closure of schools during this period of heavy snow and freezing temperatures, left them prime targets for the new trend of stealing heating oil. Thieves took 1000 litres of heating oil from the school in question, stated police sources. But other schools that have heating systems that kick in when the temperature drops to a certain level were left with dwindling supplies of heating oil. Because the temperature never reached above freezing over the Christmas holidays, most of these systems were constantly running and constantly eating into oil supplies.

The cold weather is crippling some parts of the country with many people unable to get to work. Adding to this problem is the fact that more parents now have no one to care for their children due to the hundreds of school closures.

Some people spend a lot of money heating their homes in the winter. Electricity and gas prices are very high and show no signs of coming down any time soon. Savvy people are changing over to oil as a home fuel though. And when this happens they have to ensure the tanks re always full of cheap heating oil ensuring they can always heat their home in winter.