Senior recalls similar blast in downtown Wheatley caused by gas leak in 1936
The explosion destroyed a builiding in Wheatley's village belonging to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
As Wheatley residents still reel from an explosion that destroyed two buildings in its downtown, there are still some who recall a blast that destroyed a building nearby more than 80 years ago.
"I remember the ... bricks being out on the street and right across the street the roads were blocked off, so that's as far as we could go," 95-year-old Ivan Drummond said is his recollection of seeing the aftermath of an explosion in the village of Wheatley in the 1930s while out for a drive with his father. He was 10 years old at the time.
In 1936, an explosion caused by a gas leak destroyed a building belonging to Wheatley's Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) on the corner of Elm Street and Erie Street, which just one street away from the explosion that destroyed two buildings and damaged several more last month at the corner of Erie Street and Talbot Road.
"Only a single wall remains of the building, considered Wheatley's finest," a story in the London Free Press read. "The post office, village council chambers, Gillies funeral parlors were all obliterated, while mail and town records went up in smoke as fire ensued following the explosion."
According to an article published in the Kingsville Reporter at the time, other buildings were also damaged in the area.
"Debris crushed in the roof of the Masonic rooms over the drug store next door to the shattered building," it read.
The explosion, which took place at 1:30 in the morning according to the reports, knocked over two women who were returning from a party when they were struck by flying debris.
"They were hurled to the ground, but scrambled to their feet and ran clear before the two-storey structure collapsed," the article read.
"Mrs. Tait suffered a slight injury when hit by a brick."
Gas leak
The blast caused $50,000 in damage and was blamed on gas leaking from a heater. Officials have been searching for the source of the current blast, believed to be an abandoned gas well.
"I do remember that much," Drummond said, "that it was from a gas well or something like that, that exploded."
According to a 1951 publication of the Kent Historical Society, gas was abundant in the area and there was a lot of excitement when gas wells were drilled.
It's the exact same area, it's the exact same block, it's the exact same gas.- Douglas Walker
"Farmers, on whose farms the wells were bored, received $200.00 a year and were each given free gas for heating and lighting," it read.
"Wheatley streets were lighted with gas and everyone used it for all domestic purposes when it was piped through the village about 1907."
It said that there were seven wells bored in the village of Wheatley.
"These gas wells eventually played out, but even yet at times they are active. It was gas seeping from one of them that caused the explosion of the I.O.O.F. Block."
"It's the exact same area, it's the exact same block, it's the exact same gas," said Douglas Walker, a business owner in the area who has knowledge of the 1936 explosion.
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