A Spalding-based heating oil company is making sure that no one’s Christmas will be ruined by running out of fuel.
Staff at fuel firm Rix Petroleum will be manning a 24-hour seven-day-a-week phone line over Christmas and the New Year to help out anyone in danger of running out of heating oil.
The firm is also stockpiling emergency 25 litre barrels of heating oil at its Clay Lake depot in case the weather turns bad and tanker deliveries are delayed.
People in need of fuel will be able to pick the barrels up from the depot themselves, which will see them through the worst of the weather.
Robin Exley, manager of Rix Petroleum Spalding, said it was important to ensure all the business’s customers were able to get access to fuel over the festive season if they really needed to.
He said: “Christmas could be a rotten time if you are short of fuel and there is nowhere you can get topped up.
“So we have decided to remain contactable throughout the festive season so none of our customers need go without.
“All they have to do if they are getting low is to call us and we will help them out as best we can.”
He added that the barrels had been stockpiled for emergencies but would be available in the event of weather taking a turn for the worse.
Mr Exley added: “The winter of 2010/11 was terrible, with some places in the country experiencing temperatures as low as -19 degrees centigrade.
“It was a difficult time for our tanker drivers who had to negotiate some extreme weather conditions.
“I’m not suggesting this year will be as bad as that but if conditions do deteriorate and tanker deliveries take that little bit longer, we will have emergency barrels on standby for people to pick up.
“That should help people through the worst of it.”