Thirsty cows helped by firefighters after water pump failure

The fire service were called as a "last measure" after a drinking water pump failed

Firefighters were called to help a herd of thirsty cows after a community was left without water when a pump failed.

An electricity outage stopped the pump, affecting dozens of homes in the Dungworth and Stannington areas on the outskirts of Sheffield at the weekend.

Farmer Eddie Andrew said the fire service was called as a "last measure" after two days of issues. Another family said they had run out of water.

Yorkshire Water said it was "extremely sorry" for the disruption.

The fire engine was sent out after a local MP asked the service for help

"We were emptying water from every single possible thing we had to keep the cow trough full," Mr Andrew said.

"Even up until it got daft tonight [Sunday] where we were just trying to shovel snow into it."

After being told Yorkshire Water would not be sending a bowser of water to affected properties, Mr Andrew called MP Olivia Blake to ask for help.

"It's utterly ridiculous," Ms Blake said. "This has had me and the farmer phoning round the fire service in a desperate attempt to find water for the cows."

The firefighters offered to deliver water in between jobs

Mr Andrew added: "Asking the fire brigade was a real last measure."

His neighbour Richard Clark said dozens of homes had been affected by the pump outage and his family had run out of bottled water.

"It's finished. We let the kids have a couple of glasses of water at about 6pm," the university lecturer said on Sunday evening.

"This village is full of older people and because we've had quite a lot of snow up here, it's a Sunday as well, so we don't have shops, the roads are icy.

"There's been no attempt whatsoever to deliver bottled water."

Ms Blake thanked the fire service for "being so understanding and really going above and beyond" to help.

'Working day and night'

Yorkshire Water said the pump had now been fixed after issues on Saturday and Sunday following region-wide disruption caused by Storm Arwen.

"Our teams are busy dealing with the aftermath of Storm Arwen, and have been working day and night to keep the water flowing as lots of our network relies on power to get water to customers properties," a spokesperson added.

"The adverse weather meant restoring supplies to the farm took a little longer than we would have liked, as our teams were prioritising vulnerable customers, including a local care home."