Business owners in Wheatley, Ont., demand answers after explosion injures 3, destroys 2 buildings

In the hours after an explosion rocked the heart of Wheatley, Ont., on Thursday,reducing two buildings to rubble and injuring three people, business owners were questioning theresponse to an unsolved, ongoing gas leak in the area.

"It wasn't dealt with properly, I don't think. It was just a matter of time," said Barry Broadbent, who owns the Car Barn restaurant,a couple of buildings down from the blast.

Broadbent described the aftermath of the explosion as mayhem, and was amazed and thankful more people were not injured.

Nearby business owner describes 'mayhem' following Wheatley explosion

3 years ago

Duration 3:02

Car Barn owner Barry Broadbent tells CBC Windsor reporter Jennifer La Grassa the explosion hit as he was evacuating his building.

"The government, they've had three months to do something about this three fullmonths and nobody's done anything other than monitor," said Maurice Raffoul, who owns MJ's Pizza, which was destroyed in the explosion.

"I'm just not impressed with our municipal government or our Ontario government."

Don Shropshire,chief administrative officer of Chatham-Kent, said the municipality did exactly what it should have done.

"Everything worked today," he told CBC News in the hours following the explosion.

"The fire services responded to the call, the detection equipment was put in place by the private business owner at The Pogue, the work that the municipality did to have gas detection that all worked and people were moved out of harm's way before the explosion."

Ontariosolicitor generalSylvia Jonessaid Friday that the provincehadbeen working with Chatham-Kent on the issueprior to the explosion, will continue to support the municipality.

"Our hearts go out to those who have been injured and all those affected by this tragic event," Jones said in a statement.

How this all started

A toxic, flammable gas was first detected on June 2in thecore of the town of about 3,000 people. Itrequired a response from Chatham-Kent's fire department and Windsor's hazardous materials teamthat resulted ina weeks-long state of emergency.

Dozens of people were forced to leave their homes and several businesses were shut down while the source of the hydrogen sulphide leak was investigated.

"We know it's coming out the ground between two buildings next door to the pub," Chatham-Kent fire Chief Chris Case told CBC Radio'sWindsor Morningon June 4.

A second state of emergency was declared on July 19 after gas was detected once more at 15 Erie St. N., where The Pogue Irish Pub has sat empty for years.

Once again, dozens of people were forced from their homes and buildings to close down.

Ongoing monitoring

Weeks later, the area of concern was narrowed down to just 15 Erie St. N., which would be monitored for gas.

"The ongoing monitoring offers an increased level of safety for those working in the building and ensures emergency services can be notified and a further public evacuation can be implemented, if needed," wrote Shropshire on Aug.3.

The building was destroyed in Thursday's explosion, which occurred hours aftermonitoring devices placed at the site indicated the presence of gas late in the afternoon.

"This shouldn't have happened. Someone should have been down here a long time ago to take care of this problem and they sat on it. They sat on itthat's it," saidRaffoul, who operated his pizza shop for 35 years in a building now flattened.

"If that would have exploded right away, who knows what would have happened?"

No known source of gas leak

Before Thursday, gas had last been detected at the site onJuly 19.

"We had never been able to identify the source of the gas leak," said Shropshire shortly after the latest explosion.

"No one was in the building other than the gas detection people."

Wheatley buildings decimated in explosion following gas leak

3 years ago

Duration 2:14

Two buildings in the centre of Wheatley have been reduced to rubble after an explosion on Thursday. (Credit Kathryn Parent/@_phos3)

Shropshire said they've been working with the provincial government to figure out the source of the leak.

"We've been told that there could be a number of different sources for the leak, but the most likely one, the most probable, is that it's an abandoned gas well."

Difficult and potential deadly

Days after the first leak was detected in June,Scott Mundle, one of Canada's foremost experts in identifying gases from abandoned wells, told CBC's Windsor Morning that fixing an abandoned well could be difficult.

"This is something that's routinely done and is highly, highly regulated in Western Canada. It's a little bit more challenging in Ontario because the oil and gas sector is actually a lot older, the records aren't quite as good, and the risks are a little bit higher because of the differences in regulation," said Mundle, ageochemistry professor at the University of Windsor.

"Really small amounts of this gas can cause adverse health effects, and even death."

Shropshire said this kind of investigation goes"beyond our expertise as a municipality," and said the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has been leading the file since early August.

He saidthe private sector has been consulted to help identify the source.

"The fact is we still need to know where that gas came from."