More face winter without heat than last year

About 9,300 Philadelphia households are poised to enter winter without heating service from the Philadelphia Gas Works - about 3 percent more than last year, despite recent declines in natural-gas prices, according to a survey of households by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

Statewide, the survey counted 19,745 households - 6 percent fewer than last year - that are about to enter winter without service from the utility that ordinarily provides their gas or electric heat, the PUC said.

Though welcoming the statewide decline, PUC officials warned against minimizing the threat that thousands of Pennsylvania households still face. Space heaters, which many turn to when they lack utility service, are associated with increased risks of fire and carbon-monoxide poisoning.

"I urge all consumers who are without service to take action today to have service restored before the chill of winter takes hold," PUC Chairman Wendell F. Holland said in a statement released recently with results of the survey, which is conducted annually in early December.

Statewide, about 3,700 households acknowledged they were already using heating sources that the PUC considers unsafe, including kerosene heaters, kitchen stoves or ovens, fireplaces, or electric space heaters - sometimes connected via extension cords run to neighbors' homes. That includes about 870 households ordinarily served by the Philadelphia Gas Works, and about 30 households that are Peco Energy heating customers, the survey said.

The survey also offered more evidence of a link between utility shutoffs and home abandonment that has long troubled officials in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Statewide, it identified 7,782 residences - nearly a third of them in Philadelphia - that appear to have been vacated this fall after utility service was shut off.

PUC spokeswoman Cyndi Page said families that fall behind on heating bills can often stave off a shutoff by applying to their utility for assistance.