Evacuation order lifted in Wheatley — for most

By Mark Ribble

WHEATLEY – After 17 days of uncertainty and being displaced, 27 Wheatley residents and several business owners were allowed back into the their homes and buildings on Saturday, June 19.

The June 2 detection of sour gas closed several businesses and forced residents out of their homes as Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff declared a state of emergency.

On Saturday afternoon, an information Zoom call and in-person information meeting at Wheatley arena let residents know what to expect going forward.

The evacuation order was then lifted, allowing all but two addresses access to their buildings.

The newly-renovated Wheatley Hotel at the corner of Talbot and Erie remains off limits, as does the building that housed The Pogue Irish Pub.

A software business in the upper level of the Pogue building is also shut out under the current orders. It’s unknown when they will release those two addresses, which seem to be the closest to the gas leak.

As for the rest of the homes and businesses, they began the tough task of cleaning out refrigerators and discarding long-tainted perishables.

Officials do checks at 15 Erie Street North on Saturday, June 19.

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Chatham-Kent Fire Chief Chris Case says they’ve done all they can do and they cannot hold people from their homes indefinitely.

“There’s been no detection of gas in the area since June 4,” he said. “We’ve made people aware that they should be diligent, but can now go back to their homes and businesses.”

Saturday afternoon saw several residents and business owners access their places after firefighters did one last check and walk-through for each.

By the end of the day Saturday, the fire trucks and barricades were gone.

Officials suspect a long-decommissioned gas well to be the culprit but after two weeks, were unable to locate it.

The tenants at 37 Erie Street North were happy, but anxious, to get back into their building after firefighters completed one final sweep.

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Crews from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of the Environment, Chatham-Kent Fire, Police and countless private companies had been on scene for 17 days straight.

“We’d like to commend our fire crews, who’ve worked tirelessly on a rotational basis,” said Chief Case.

“We are all anxious to see the community of Wheatley return to its vibrant state with businesses reopened and residents back in their homes but based on the advice we have received, some further monitoring of two locations is required before we can move the whole community back out of a state of emergency,” added Mayor Canniff.

The gas wells were dug in the late 1800s and primitive record keeping doesn’t allow for officials to pinpoint the wells.

Southwestern Ontario has many old wells underground and these sour gas issues are popping up more frequently. A 2016 incident in Leamington took several months to solve.

A collective sigh of relief came over the village on Saturday for most affected by the state-of-emergency, but without definite answers, the question remains as to what the future will hold for them.

Officials left them with some assurance that right now, there is no detection of gas, but there remains a level of uncertainty as they move back into their buildings and homes.

And for the two business owners who still remain on the outside looking in, that uncertainty grows with each passing day.