The Spokane Regional Health District announced Tuesday that household hazardous material cleanup operations have begun under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency for fire-damaged homes.
A public health order, signed by Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velázquez, authorizes the EPA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other partner organizations to develop a plan to safely remove contaminated materials from homes damaged or completely destroyed by the Spokane Complex fires.
EPA personnel arrived Sunday to plan for the coming weeks with local and state responders and officials.
Hazmat removal teams will likely begin work early next week, and the complete mission assignment is expected to take 60 days, with goals to meet or exceed that timeline, according to Brooks Stanfield, the Region 10 Incident Commander with the EPA.
"We anticipate we're gonna have reconnaissance teams out — probably on Thursday — starting to do kind of a preview of what we're looking at and identify safety hazards that those hazmat teams are gonna encounter and prepare for them," Stanfield said.
The assessment and disposal of hazardous materials will be free of charge.
"The influx of these federal resources will aid in reducing the financial burden on our community as we navigate the rebuilding in the coming months," said Eastern Washington Director of the Department of Ecology Brook Beeler.
The EPA team guiding the safety response are experienced with wildfire relief efforts and previously responded to urban fires in Los Angeles and Maui, Beeler said.
Crews will look for common household products, like paints, cleaning supplies, herbicides, pressured fuel cylinders, lithium-ion batteries and any other materials that pose health hazards after being on fire.
"You'll be surprised how many things we have at home that can become dangerous when fire is involved," Velázquez said. "Many of these things can be toxic ash, burnt building materials, batteries — lots of batteries — propane cylinders, fuels, pesticides, asbestos, lead and many other dangerous substances. If we leave those in place, this material can be spread by wind, rain, runoff or even human activity, creating risks for people and the environment."
These operations are able to begin once fire risk is cleared.
Stanfield said the agency is prepared to launch web-based tools where homeowners and residents can track field teams to see in real time where work is being done on a parcel-by-parcel basis. This will show when teams will be in certain neighborhoods and when hazardous material removal work will be completed.
The operations will be solely dedicated to homes with fire damage.
Velázquez said many damaged properties contain hazardous materials that are not always visible, resulting in serious public health risk.
"For homeowners, the most important thing I want you to know is this — you do not need to take any action," Velázquez said. "Fire damage properties are automatically included, so cleanup can begin as quickly as possible, and unnecessary delays can be avoided."
The EPA and FEMA may only enter fire-damaged property for wildfire recovery purposes, and the order does not authorize criminal investigations, unrelated inspections, access to undamaged residences or seizure of personal property.
Property owners may opt out of the hazardous material removal program.
"This protects homeowners, contractors and future occupants from unnecessary exposure to dangerous matters and helps ensure recovery is done safely," Velázquez said. "We understand that residents are here to move forward and begin rebuilding their lives."
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