One year later, Chris Patterson still can’t hear a siren without being taken back to the night of the explosion he and many others won’t soon forget.
“Hopefully, once we get back into our place, we will. But both me and my partner have triggers, even hearing sirens, stuff like that. It’s draining,” Patterson said.
His home on Woodman Avenue is one of four that was destroyed after a gas explosion on the night of Aug. 14, 2019.
At 10:37 p.m., a driver drove into 450 Woodman Ave., hitting a gas line and triggering a stream of events that levelled one house and damaged several, three of which were demolished as a result.
Patterson, who lives right next door to the house that was hit had just returned home from work and was enjoying a glass of wine with his girlfriend and her cousin when they heard the bang.
He and other neighbours rushed outside to find a car half inside their neighbour’s home. The neighbour was away at the time.
Together he and others helped free the driver from the car before emergency officials advised them and residents of 100 other homes to leave the area because they smelled gas.
“I would say it was just adrenalin, and you do what you think is necessary,” Patterson said.
Now a year later, they’re working on how to rebuild.
“We are trying to build as close as possible because they were century homes. It’s going to be difficult, borderline impossible, to build a facade in that way.”
Patterson said he and several others who lost their homes are working with builders to ensure their homes reflect the character of the Old East Village.
Due to COVID-19, like many others, their plans to rebuild have been put on hold, but he still hopes to one day call Woodman Avenue home again.
Daniel Phillips, owner of Illbury + Goose, who lives a block away from the explosion, remembers thinking there had been a plane crash.
“I assumed someone ran into my office in the front unit, and I looked out the window and just saw people running down the street.”
He remembers trying to avoid falling debris as he went closer to see what had happened and the community support that came after.
“The neighbours you just pass every day — you get the sense we are all in this together.”
In the days and weeks that followed, several fundraisers were set up to help the victims with damage estimated to be between $10 million and $15 million. Phillips’s own business created a shirt to help fundraise.
“This a really big-hearted community with tons of action, and the Old East Village is doing great right now.”
With files from Matthew Trevithick, Trudy Shaw Global News
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