Wheatley residents allowed back home after two-week evacuation even though ‘We cannot tell people it's safe’
Municipal officials are “shrinking” the evacuation order down to just two properties and allowing all 31 residents to return home.
“We can’t carry this on forever,” Chatham-Kent Fire Chief Chris Case told CTV News Saturday.
“We cannot tell people it's safe. We can tell people that there was a risk, that risk is still there but the actual gas is no longer present that’s all we can tell them.”
On June 2, 2021, a hydrogen sulphide gas leak was detected inside 15 Erie St. North in Wheatley.
Chief Case describes it as 'toxic and highly explosive gas coming out of the ground in sufficient quantities that it could have exploded.'
First responders shut off all utilities to a block of buildings at Erie and Talbot, evacuated 31 residents and closed 12 businesses.
Chief Case says firefighters have been on scene ever since testing the entire perimeter every 15 minutes for gas.
It has been a costly emergency according to Chief Case.
“At least two to $4,000 a day just for wages, for Fuel. We’ve had at least two fire trucks here the entire time.”
No gas leaks have been detected for two weeks so on Saturday the municipality and first responders started to escort residents and business owners back to their properties.
One of them is Domenik Mier, who came to Essex County from Mexico for work.
“At the first time it was kindof hard because it was all of a sudden, we didn’t know like what are we going to do?”
Mier says he and three roommates didn’t know anyone in the area so his boss stepped in offering a place to stay and food to eat.
The Municipality of Chatham-Kent assisted residents with food vouchers and finding lodgings for the last two weeks and has now set up a resource centre for evacuees to help them get back on their feet.
“I think the village is still concerned about it, is it gone? Is it not gone?” Says George Imeson, with the Royal Canadian Legion, located within the evacuation zone.
Imeson says fortunately a local company took their frozen food before the evacuation started so the Legion isn’t facing a significant amount of food lost.
But Imeson says it's been a challenging two weeks.
“It's just been horrendous for the whole year. COVID and now this.”
Officials expect to have all evacuees back home or in their businesses by the end of the day Saturday.
However two properties will remain closed indefinitely; 15 Erie St North where the gas was initially detected and 5 Talbot Rd East, which is right beside.
“There’s an expert gas monitoring company in there right now, taking readings at the source where we know where the gas came from initially to see if there’s any more signs of gas," says Chief Case who won’t speculate on when those buildings might reopen.
Municipal officials say they know there are two decommissioned gas wells and one decommissioned water well in the area.
“This is a new one for me after 29 years of leaving a scene,” says Chief Case.
“I still don’t know where the gas came from. No one can tell me that.”
Imeson and Mier both say they are fine with returning home and believe the situation has been handled.
“Nobody is guilty of this...It's nobodys fault. So we’re just like flowing with the waves," says Mier.
Imeson agrees.
“Why worry about something you can’t control?”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.