December 1st, 2005

Following a blaze at an abandoned warehouse, fire fighters have spoken about the possibilities of asbestos contamination stemming from the blaze and other fires like it. The site of the latest fire has been marked as contaminated, and several fire departments were called in to tackle the blaze where dangerous contaminants were found to be stored.

One fire department chief spoke about the risks and possibilities of asbestos contamination from such a fire, stating: "What happens is the small particles of the asbestos become airborne. They're microscopic and they can get into your lungs. So they wet them down to keep them matted together so they really don't get out in the atmosphere."

The DEC has expressed concern about levels of water, even though water can help to reduce the damage and level of asbestos contamination. This is because other dangerous chemicals have been identified and water could make matters with these other chemicals even worse.

A spokesperson added: "The only thing they'll be concerned about at a later point was the amount of water that may have flooded that area. They'll have to pump it out and do the abatement process on all that water."