Chatham-Kent looking to purchase evacuation zone properties in Wheatley explosion

Nearly a year and a half after an explosion rocked downtown Wheatley, some property owners in an area that remains evacuated are now being asked to sell.

The municipality of Chatham-Kent has reached out to 11 property owners at the corner of Erie Street North and Talbot Road East, which is the block where an explosion linked to a gas leak took place in August 2021. The buildings there are part of the town's evacuation zone and sit empty, along with many other nearby commercial properties that still haven't reopened to the public.

Chatham-Kent's director of legal services, David Taylor, told CBC News that the municipality was advised to purchase the properties by consultants so that it can add more safety infrastructure to the area.

A hydrogen sulphide leak from gas wells in the area are suspected to have caused the explosion, which destroyed two buildings, injured 20 people and left nearly 100 households and dozens of businesses displaced.

"The purpose [of these discussions] is really just exploratory at this point to determine whether those property owners are willing to sell their properties," said Taylor.

Taylor said that when it comes to safety, the system in place there will capture any gas that could leak out and it will go through some "technical systems" that can remove some of its potentially harmful elements.

"So all of that is infrastructure that needs space and could have emission points and things like that ... so just having more space than what the municipality currently owns, which is just the parking lot, will just give some more flexibility to those experts to install those types of safety systems," he said.

Wheatley resident was to see the town get back to what it was 

He added that taking these next steps could also be a way for "community members to contribute to what the future vision of the site should be." He said the municipality thinks this could help the community heal and move forward.

And that's exactly what Stephen Ingram hopes comes out of this as well.

Ingram is not one of the property owners in the evacuated zone, but he lives up the street from the site of the explosion and was displaced from his home for eight months afterward.

Ingram is one of the community members part of a proposed $100-million class action lawsuit that launched against the municipality and HSE Integrated Ltd.— a company hired to find the source of the gas leak — in November 2022.

Right now, Ingram said he wants to see steps taken to get the town back to what it was and thinks this could be a good move.

"It's still not the town that we moved into five years ago and it certainly doesn't have the personality any more. I'm for anything that's positive," said Ingram.

"I think we have to ... stop pointing fingers and get the town back to what it was or recuperate and get the best we can."

While streets have reopened to traffic, Ingram said it's not the same as commercial businesses and restaurants remain vacant and the community no longer gathers in that area.

Ingram added that he thinks this will be a "very difficult negotiation" and likely face debate.

At the same time, Ingram said the push to buy these properties could be a "knee jerk reaction to the lawsuit" or legal advise to do something an "appease the situation."

Taylor said he can't comment on the ongoing lawsuit, but said that purchasing the lots is "not any sort of strategy to accomplish some sort of gain in the lawsuit." He said it's strictly based on recommendations from experts to "control more of the site" for safety reasons.

According to Taylor, there's also no hard deadline for property owners to say whether or not they'd sell and right now the municipality is just collecting information to present to city council at a later date.

The municipality will be holding a community meeting March 1 for the town to hear experts share more about the future of the site.