Vehicles outside the Chehalis Fire Department sit inside a fenced-off perimeter in August 2018 after asbestos testing registered trace amounts of exposure in the building, enough to require the city to hire a licensed contractor to address the contamination.
Personal protective equipment including helmets and footgear sit inside the evacuated Chehalis Fire Department on Wednesday as vehicles rest inside a fenced-off perimeter following testing that showed trace amounts of Asbestos contamination in the building.
Vehicles outside the Chehalis Fire Department sit inside a fenced-off perimeter after Asbestos testing registered trace amounts of exposure in the building, enough to require the city to hire a licensed contractor to address the contamination.
Testing completed Tuesday at the Chehalis Fire Department building showed trace to minute amounts of asbestos in the air after workers found the carcinogenic material while removing floor tiles on Friday.
The building at 455 NW Park St. was evacuated Friday and will remain vacated until the entire space is cleaned by an asbestos abatement company licensed through the state Department of Labor and Industries.
Frank Ameduri, a communications consultant for the L&I Division of Occupational Safety and Health, told The Chronicle that the agency does not have an open investigation or inspection file for the incident at this time.
“They identified it themselves and it sounds like, from everything I’ve seen, they’re following all the rules at this point and doing what they’re supposed to do,” Ameduri said. “The only way we would become involved is if there was some sort of a complaint or injury that required us to do an inspection.”
Chehalis Fire Chief Ken Cardinale said the readings testers found fell near the lowest end of the scale, but that was enough to require going through the L&I process that will likely force his department to keep working out of the Lewis County Fire District 6 facility south of town through the end of the month.
“The cleaning will take about 10 days once it gets started,” Cardinale said. “The contractor said if they took a sample out now, it’d be clear, but since they found it, L&I code requires it be cleaned. We’re working on getting bids in right now. Dates between (Aug.) 15 and 20 are what we’ve gotten back as possible start days.”
Chehalis city staff are in charge of the bidding process. Items such as personal protective equipment and vehicles left in the building Friday must remain there until the cleaning process is completed.
Asbestos contractors are the only occupation that L&I certifies itself due to the extreme hazard posed by the toxic material.
“One of the unfortunate things about it is it takes a long time for exposure to show up as far as health problems go,” Ameduri said. “We want to make sure it’s handled properly at the time it’s being removed.”
Cardinale said the whole situation has been an inconvenience for his department, but that they’ve handled it well.
Chehalis firefighters have been using protective gear loaned to them by Riverside Fire Authority and a reserve engine owned by Fire District 6 since leaving their own behind when they evacuated Friday.
Response times to incidents located in the northern portion of the department’s coverage area, including the shopping centers on Louisiana Avenue by the airport, will be slightly delayed until further notice.
