It's being called a record by SaskEnergy and given the extreme cold, a race against the clock.

Work continues Thursday to restore service for those affected by Wednesday's natural gas outage in the Melfort, Kinistino, and St. Brieux areas.

A ruptured pipeline between Weldon and Birch Hills was repaired as of 9:00pm Wednesday, according to Director of Media Relations, Dave Burdeniuk.

He says that as of Thursday morning, around half of the 4,500 customers affected are still without heat.

"We are trying everything we can to ensure everyone has heat today," he explained. "We really hope we can get to everyone before any home or business is damaged by water lines freezing."

Burdeniuk says that it is a lengthy ordeal and unlike any other.

"We know people are worried about their homes. It is a manual process. When your electricity goes off, it comes back on for everyone at the same time. With natural gas, it is a manual process. We literally have to go door-to-door."

That could be where a problem lies for SaskEnergy, Burdeniuk says.

"If we can't reach you by phone and the door is locked, we will be using the RCMP and a locksmith. We will enter your home with an officer and then make sure the furnace is started and the water heater is started."

Burdeniuk says that this type of outage is one they have never experienced before.

"We've never had an outage this big. Ever. For us, an outage is usually one or two customers, so for us to have up to 4,500 customers, this is huge."

He added that a typical outage might have a customer smell an underground gas leak and a technician has to be brought in to make a one or two hour repair.

Burdeniuk says they are hoping to have service fully restored by noon, or the early afternoon on Thursday.