The fog that’s been blanketing the Royal City has been the best dust-suppression measure at the site of a devastating fire on Columbia Street.
When the E.L. Lewis Block and the Hamly Block were destroyed in the Oct. 10 fire, it took out many local businesses. The fire also resulted in a pile of rubble, which contains elevated risks of asbestos.
“The city did street cleaning right after, we did sidewalk cleaning. The engineering department was out washing the sidewalks down. Really containment of any asbestos was to keep it damp and keep it controlled, and keep the dust down,” Fire Chief Tim Armstrong told The Record.“This last week of fog was probably the best wetting agent to keep any dust down in the area.”
Although he said he wouldn’t want to “stick my neck out and say there is 100 per cent no health concern,” Armstrong is confident there’s no cause for alarm about asbestos generated at the site. He said the fire department used its asbestos management plan at the scene during and after the fire, and consulted with the restoration companies working for insurance companies at the site.
“We are comfortable with the procedures they had,” he said. “They brought in an environmental protection company that did surface testing for contaminants. They supplied us with a report that there were elevated levels of asbestos. That’s not a secret. They were just above the permissible limits for WorkSafe B.C.”
According to Armstrong, the testing was done a day after the fire, when investigators began entering demolished building.
“From that, they set up a decontamination area for workers coming out,” he said. “They had to have proper personal protective equipment on, proper respirators and suits, gloves and a method of decontaminating and discarding any garments that were used there.”
Armstrong said asbestos is a product commonly used in older buildings; it’s found in cement mortar for brickwork and in drywall joint compounds and is wrapped around pipes.
“Asbestos in its form is fine – it’s the airborne dust particles that are created when you start to do demolition work or things like that. Now you’ve got that fibrous product and it’s airborne,” he said about the risk. “There are control methods like using hose lines and keeping it wet. And keeping it damp so it’s not fine particulate dust. From a public heath perspective, it’s not like it flies all over the place.”
Armstrong said people working with asbestos on an ongoing basis and not taking precautions would be most at risk.
Ken Donahue, a senior communications consultant at Fraser Health, said the region’s chief medical health officer said Fraser Health Authority has no information about this particular case. He said the health authority teams would only consider potential health risks from the fire contacted by the fire department because of concerns from a public health perspective.
“We would then go in and monitor it from a public health perspective,” he said. “The fire department is going to monitor it for any potential risks or hazards, and if there were any from a public health perspective they would let us know. But they haven’t done that, so the first call is going to have to be to the fire department.”
Fire destroyed the E.L. Lewis Block (also known as the Crescent Block) at 634 Columbia St. and the majority of the Hamly Block at 628 Columbia St. The fire department has ordered that the rear portion of the Hamly Block that is still standing to be demolished as soon as possible.
“It’s not salvageable,” Armstrong said. “We don’t want people going back in there. It’s going to need to come down. The same with the site. It needs to be remediated and cleaned up. That needs to be done in a timely manner.”
Having concluded their on-site investigation, New Westminster police and fire departments have released the scene back to the owner and the insurance companies.
“It’s still an active investigation with ourselves and police,” Armstrong said. “I can’t really speculate on the cause and origin right now. We are working on it.”
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