Wheatley Explosion

August 26, 2021

So I was grilling some nice steaks on the back deck, in spite of the oppressive heat....and heard a rather loud boom. It turned out that after several evacuations this summer due to gas leaks in downtown Wheatley....things finally came to a head.

The main intersection had been shut down several times this summer, until increasing gas levels decreased to "acceptable" levels. Buildings to entire blocks have been evacuated each time, depending upon wind speed and direction. Apparently an old capped well under the village was leaking a pent-up pocket of hydrogen sulfide.....which exploded on roughly the same spot back in 1936!

Tonight, apparently the building that formerly housed The Pogue, our local pub, exploded. Luckily, the gas monitoring alarms went off about 4:45pm and the explosion happened around 6:15pm, so the immediate area had been evacuated by the fire department. Several buildings around there experienced significant damage, prompting a wider evacuation, followed by a steady stream of emergency response vehicles speeding past our place heading towards the village for the next hour or so.

Still waiting to hear the extent of injuries, hoping for no fatalities given the evacuation. Wheatley will not be the same for quite some time.

BEFORE - white pickup truck is company that monitors the gas levels

And AFTER

Same white pickup blown across the street towards what's left of Subway

Front window blown out of our local pharmacy

The new Wheatley Hotel and a pile of rubble next door

MJ's Pizza next door to the former Pogue

From the park across from The Legion

Drone footage of the destruction

Emergency crews on scene - triage at the Circle K 

Ambulances lined up along Talbot Trail

Talbot Trail (Hwy 3) and Erie Street - THE intersection that is Wheatley

Hmmm.....this happened on the same spot in 1936....