N.B. man says he complained about fuel leak 7 weeks before Tim Hortons shut down in Woodstock

A Nackawic, N.B., man says he suspected a fuel leak at a Tim Hortons coffee shop in Woodstock and complained to a manager months before it was shut down.

Jody Bourgoin, who works in Woodstock, said he tried to warn staff about diesel in the restaurant's water back in October, more than two months before the Tim Hortons on Beardsley Road was closed because of a significant leak of diesel from Murray's Irving gas station next door.

He said he stopped at the Beardsley Road location on his lunch break to charge his electric car on Oct. 21. While he was waiting, he went into the coffee shop to use the bathroom. 

"When I went to wash my hands, I just noticed it smelled like gas," said Bourgoin.

"So I tried to wash that smell off. Obviously, I couldn't. I realized it was coming out of the tap." 

He left to go back to work, but when co-workers also noticed the smell, he decided to call the coffee shop to let them know they might have a problem. 

"The manager I talked to basically said the smell is from their filtration system for their water," said Bourgoin. 

He said the manager he spoke with wasn't alarmed and told him his complaint wasn't the first. 

"She said she had multiple calls," said Bourgoin. "And that was it." 

CBC News verified that Bourgoin did make a call to that location through the call records on his phone. His call, made at 12:45 p.m. on Oct. 21, lasted 33 seconds.

Bourgoin is one of several people CBC News has spoken to about the smell of fuel in the coffee shop in the weeks leading up to its closure. 

Unconvinced by the explanation he received from the manager, he said, he never went back. 

"No water filtration system smells like diesel, it just doesn't."

On Dec. 12, about seven weeks later, both the Tim Hortons and the Irving gas station were closed after the well water at the coffee shop tested positive for fuel contamination.