Residents living on ‘Butane Lane’ want Irving to reconsider buying their houses

Residents living in eight houses on Pleasant City Street in Saint John’s east end say they want Irving Oil to reconsider buying their homes following a gas leak last month, which forced many to be evacuated on that street and nearby River Avenue for nearly a week.

“Can it happen again? Of course anything can happen again and again and again,” explained Ruth Vossen a longtime resident of the dead-end street.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Can it happen again? Of course anything can happen again and again and again," explained Ruth Vossen a longtime resident of the dead-end street.

Those living in eight houses on the quaint street are disgruntled after learning Irving Oil is looking to buy the houses one street over. Those houses were closest to the where the leak occurred in a four inch pipe leading to the refinery, discovered only when employees were preparing to do maintenance work on the line.

“Every day we have to drive past ground zero right where the leak was, to get out of here,” explained Rob Frenette.

Requests for an interview with Irving Oil went unanswered, but the company has told some of the residents living on Pleasant City Street why they won’t be appraising their houses according to Vossen.

“I was told that Irving Oil is not in the business of buying residential residences.”

There’s concern among many as to what type of impact the butane leak will have on the value of their homes, because of the gas leak and how close the houses are to a collection of pipelines.

“We were planning on keeping it for maybe 10-15 years and put it back on the market, but I think we’re going to have to hold it a lot longer than that if Irving is not interested,” said Frenette.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We were planning on keeping it for maybe 10-15 years and put it back on the market, but I think we're going to have to hold it a lot longer than that if Irving is not interested," said Frenette.

Meantime, Irving Oil hired a consultant to assess the impact of the leak and come up with a remedial action plan. The report was completed but only given to the Department of Environment and has not been made public.