No heat on a freezing night is the call the line exists for. This page sorts true emergencies from wait-until-morning problems, lays out the multi-unit landlord playbook, and tells you what to do while help is on the way. Triage runs 24/7.
General inquiries: 7 AM–7 PM · Emergency calls: 24/7 · (888) 766-1474
True no-heat vs. wait-until-morning.
A boiler emergency is about heat loss plus cold, not about noise or inconvenience. No heat with outdoor temperatures near freezing is the core case — pipes freeze, and in a multi-unit building one dead boiler puts several households at risk. Any gas odor is an emergency of a different kind: leave the building and call the gas utility first, then the boiler line. Active water leaking from the boiler or its piping — not a slow weep, but water spreading — also qualifies, as does a steam system blowing water through vents.
Not emergencies: a lockout you reset once and the unit stays running, kettling or banging noises, one cold room, or pressure that drifts down slowly. Those are diagnosis calls for the boiler repair page — they matter, but they do not jump the queue. When in doubt, call the emergency line anyway and describe it plainly; triage exists to sort this out.
One boiler, several cold apartments — order matters.
In Springfield's triple-deckers and brick apartment blocks, the person calling is often the landlord or property manager, and the emergency is multiplied across units. The triage call goes faster when you have four things ready: the address and which units are affected (all of them, or just one floor — the pattern is diagnostic), the fuel type (gas, oil, or steam), whether you can get the technician into the basement and any locked utility areas, and who authorizes the work.
Do not have tenants keep resetting an oil burner — repeated resets flood the chamber with unburned fuel and turn a service call into a cleanup. If the boiler is gas and the unit simply will not fire, check the thermostat setting and the emergency switch before calling; those two account for a surprising share of panicked calls. Authorization belongs to the owner or manager — say who that is on the call so dispatch does not stall.
Protect the pipes until help arrives.
If the house or building is losing heat, the immediate risk is frozen pipes. Let faucets drip slightly, open cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls, and keep interior doors open so residual warmth circulates. If any section of the building still has heat, keep those doors closed to bank it.
Do not use ovens, grills, or unvented heaters for warmth — the carbon monoxide risk is real and it is how bad nights get worse. If you must leave a cold unit, shut the main water and drain the lowest faucet only if you know how; otherwise wait for guidance on the triage call. On steam systems, do not add water repeatedly trying to keep the boiler alive — flooding a steam boiler causes its own damage.
Triage first, dispatch second.
The emergency line at (888) 766-1474 runs 24/7. The call starts with triage, not a sales pitch: your ZIP, the fuel type, what the boiler is doing or not doing, how many units are affected, and whether anyone smells gas or sees water. True no-heat calls near freezing jump the queue — you will get an honest read on priority and timing, not a promise the line cannot keep.
General inquiries — quotes, scheduling non-urgent visits, questions about an existing work order — run 7 AM to 7 PM. If your situation is not an emergency, the national emergency page explains the same triage logic in general terms, and the how-it-works page walks through what happens after dispatch.
Related services when the crisis passes.
Once heat is restored, the follow-up usually belongs on the diagnosis and repair page — most emergencies have an underlying fault worth fixing properly. If the emergency exposed a fuel-specific weakness, see the gas boiler page or the oil boiler page. And if the boiler that died was already on borrowed time, the installation and replacement page covers the sizing and fuel-choice math.
Straight answers before you call.
Check the thermostat, the red emergency switch, and the breaker — then call (888) 766-1474 immediately. A triple-decker going cold means three households and real freeze risk, so multi-unit outages jump the queue. Do not keep resetting a locked-out burner; tell triage what the system is doing instead.
No heat in freezing weather, active water leaking from the boiler, any gas odor, a steam system hammering violently, or a burner that will not stay running. Uneven heat or a new noise with heat still working can usually wait for a scheduled visit. When unsure, describe the symptom — triage sorts it in a minute or two, 24/7.
Yes — a steam boiler with no visible waterline should be shut down, not fed blindly, because firing a dry boiler can crack the sections. Shut it down and call the 24/7 line. Do not add water until a tech assesses it; the water went somewhere, and that somewhere matters.
A strong or growing oil odor means a leak — a weeping fitting, a failing tank seam, or a spill at the filter — and it deserves a prompt visit, not a wait-and-see. Check for wet spots under the tank and along the fuel line if you can do it safely. Mention the odor's strength on the call; it sets the priority.
Yes — shut the boiler down if water is reaching it, and call the 24/7 line. A burst pipe with the heat still calling can keep feeding water into the damage. Tell triage where the burst is and whether the boiler area is dry; the response depends on both.
Call (888) 766-1474 now — the emergency line is answered 24/7 and true no-heat calls jump the queue.
