C-K officials meet with Wheatley residents in virtual meeting

WHEATLEY — A virtual meeting held through Facebook Live and YouTube on Saturday morning, September 4, left some residents with even more questions and others satisfied that the municipality was doing all that it can do.

About 200 people watched the meeting on Facebook and were able to participate by posing questions in the comments section.

A number of questions centred around when evacuated residents would be able to return to their homes, but officials were quick to say that right now, that time frame is not available.

“There is still no known origin of the Hydrogen Sulphide gas and we continue to work with the province to find out more,” said Chatham-Kent Fire Chief Chris Case.

The panel included Chief Case, Chatham-Kent CAO Don Shropshire, Chatham-Kent Family Services Manager April Rietdyk, Chatham-Kent Councillor Melissa Harrigan, Chatham-Kent Legal Clinic Paralegal Jeff Wilkins and Jennifer Barton, who is the Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

When pressed for a timeline on evacuees moving back, suggesting maybe next week brought a firm response from Chief Case.

“I don’t think anyone will be moving back into their homes next week,” he said. “We have yet to determine the source and we don’t know when that will happen.”

Shropshire indicated that the municipality’s Chief Building Inspector will be in charge of examining any buildings in the blast zone for structural damage and assured residents that clean-up will take place as quickly as the investigation allows.

When asked if residents can get back into their homes for a short time to collect necessities, Shropshire couldn’t guarantee it.

“It would need to be asked of the technical experts on scene,” he said. “We aren’t in a position to make that commitment right now.”

According to Shropshire, the province’s technical experts are on scene and working to determine exactly where the leak is coming from so that they can plan a strategy to eliminate it.

Deputy Minister Barton confirmed that the province came on board back in July when the second leak caused a shutdown of Wheatley’s downtown.

Disposal bins line Talbot Street East in Wheatley on Labour Day Monday, as crews make progress in the clean-up at the blast site. As of Monday, crews had completely removed the debris from the 15 Erie Street North location. Aerial photos circulating on social media show the basement of the building very much intact. Now that the debris has been cleared, Ontario Fire Marshal inspectors and private technical experts will make decisions on how to move forward in the investigation. Meanwhile, Wheatley residents and business owners are awaiting word on a permanent solution.

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“We’ve been providing support and are now working closely with the municipality since the 26th,” she said.

Barton said that the province has entered into a contract with a firm of specialists who are on scene and they are finalizing that contract currently.

Shropshire said that the municipality reached out to a number of experts in June and were advised that the gas leak then was probably a one-time occurrence referred to as a ‘gas burp’.

“When it happened again in July, we doubled down on our efforts to find the source,” he said.

When asked about who will bear the cost of finding and stopping the leak, Shropshire said he wasn’t sure who would bear the brunt of the cost.

Barton reiterated that it’s important to note that they still don’t know what the source is.

Firefighters were in the process of evacuating the downtown when the blast occurred.

Chief Case said that they had some evacuations completed and were working on notifying everyone else when the explosion happened.

“We immediately began evacuating the area,” he said. “Crews began expanding the evacuation and that’s when the explosion took place.”

Frustration was evident among the residents online, but afterward, many commended those in charge for answering their questions the best they could with the information they had.

Anyone with general questions is asked to call 519-360-1998. Social Services can be reached at 519-351-8573.