Six months after gas leaks began to plague downtown Wheatley, Chatham-Kent’s fire chief is hopeful there will be some closure in the new year.
Following the initial hydrogen sulphide gas leak in June and the subsequent explosion on August 26, local firefighters have been present in Wheatley to keep the community safe.
CK Fire Chief Chris Case said it’s been humbling to watch.
“Nobody is suffering more than the people that have been evacuated from their homes, but the firefighters have been on-scene nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past six months. And that’s pretty much unheard of in the fire service, to be [that] committed,” said Case. “It’s going to be the longest-running incident Chatham-Kent has ever had.”
Case has been fire chief in Chatham-Kent for just over two years and he said, in that time, there have been only two weeks where there wasn’t an ongoing emergency within the municipality. He added that, on a personal level, the incident in Wheatley is one of the most challenging incidents he has had to deal with in his career.
“Throughout all of this year, we’ve still had the fires, we’ve still had the medical calls, we’ve still had the motor vehicle collisions, the wires down, and all the other things the fire department gets called to,” Case said. “And I’m proud to say the firefighters of Chatham-Kent have kept showing up and kept doing their job and I’m immensely proud of the services they’ve given to our communities.”
Excavation work has been ongoing in Wheatley since early last week, as technical crews work to determine how the hydrogen sulphide gas is reaching the surface.
Case said firefighters will continue to support operations at the site and he’s hopeful Wheatley residents will see the ongoing issue resolved early in the new year.