'Improper use of compressed gas': Dozens of residents displaced after 'explosion' at St. Thomas affordable housing complex

With damage to only three units, there is hope that residents of 16 Queen St. in St. Thomas, Ont. will be able to return to their homes in the next couple of days.

The tenants of 45 units have been temporarily displaced after an "explosion" took place in a second-floor unit Friday afternoon.

St. Thomas Chief Fire Inspector Kim Destun says the cause of the blast was "improper use of compressed gas."

"It was enough to shake my apartment," says David Thiessen, a resident in the city’s newest affordable housing building which opened less than six months ago.

"It rocked it like your glasses would rattle or ting together, so it was quite an impact."

Fellow resident Daniel Porter says it was enough to lift his floor up a couple of inches.

"It sounded like a small hand grenade went off below us," says Porter who lives on the fourth floor.

The City of St. Thomas, Ont. has issued an Order to Remedy Unsafe Building notice as well as an Order to Prohibit Occupancy note on 16 Queen St. after an explosion occurred on Friday Jan. 26, 2024 (Source: Brent Lale/CTV London)The city has issued an Order to Remedy Unsafe Building note on the front doors, saying ‘an event occurred’ in unit 203 which caused extensive damage to units 202, 203 and 204, as well as an adjacent closet.

They have also placed an Order to Prohibit Occupancy note.

"In the unit that it occurred in, it had blown the walls kind of about five inches out and into impacted the apartments on either side of it as well," says Destun. "It had blown doors in and moved structurally stuff around."

Staff sprung into action evacuating the building, providing warming buses, and transporting all tenants to a motel.

"Our chief building officer of course would have inspected the building as early as we possibly can," says Joe Preston, mayor of St. Thomas.

He added, "Once they're sure everyone is safe and everybody's being taken care of, he put certain directions in place of don't re-enter until we have an engineering review of what is occurred and that there isn’t any structural issues. That will be done as absolutely fast as possible because apparently the damage over there's been isolated to one unit, maybe a couple of attaching units so most people going back home would be a great thing. So we'll do that as fast as possible."

The hope is, that everyone but those three affected units will be able to return home by Monday.

However while they wait in limbo, the tenants who waited so long to find a place of their own, remain concerned.

"That’s 45 potential people that were homeless before that or are now thinking that they're homeless again," says Thiessen. "It's quite an effect, and a lot of people are emotionally upset."

That’s something not lost on Preston, who is also dealing with tenants who lost their home in a nearby fire Thursday.

"That's why we put the task force on that immediately," says Preston. "Let's make sure everybody's safe. Then as quick as possible, see that the building is safe so people can move back home. This is the home and 45 people."

The office of the Ontario Fire Marshal will not be attending, and Destun says they have called St. Thomas Police to investigate.