This year’s wildfires engulfed nearly 9 million acres of land in the US, marking the most destructive fire season in 70 years and costing nearly $3 billion so far. While the fires are under control, a toxic threat still looms in the wake of the destruction. By destroying older homes and businesses, the release of asbestos fibers is putting many first responders, cleanup crews, and residents at risk of harmful exposure. In this blog, we’ll review the reasons the western wildfires generated concern about asbestos and what our community can do to prevent similar dangers.
How Did the Western Wildfires Create an Asbestos Risk?
Fires are capable of creating asbestos exposure risks when they damage or disturb asbestos-containing materials. Older structures, especially homes built before 1990 or older schools, tend to contain insulation, flooring, roofing, and construction materials known for having asbestos. When those structures are destroyed by fire, the friable asbestos contaminates the air and eventually settles with the remaining ash. When this asbestos ash is disturbed by work crews or gets caught up in the wind, the surrounding community is at risk of asbestos exposure.
Precautions to Prevent Risks of Asbestos After a Wildfire
While most don’t associate the northeastern U.S. with wildfires, nearly 9,000 homes have been destroyed in the region by wildfires since 1985, according to The Northeast States Emergency Consortium. What inevitably happens – or should happen – after a fire is put out is trained asbestos crews will employ the following measures:
- Wet the Asbestos: An asbestos abatement team will dampen the ashes and wreckage to decrease the chances of asbestos fibers from becoming airborne.
- Properly Dispose of the Materials: They will cover the asbestos-containing materials with plastic and dispose of it in a specialized landfill.
- Sample the Air Quality: They will run tests on the air quality to ensure it is safe for other cleanup crews to perform their duties without the risk of exposure.
Property owners can also do their part to mitigate the risks to their family and fire responders by having an asbestos abatement company remove asbestos for their buildings.
While wildfires will certainly generate concern about asbestos, there are ways of diminishing the effects of exposure by abiding by the state’s evacuation protocols and having an asbestos abatement team handle the dangerous work. At Fiber Control, Inc., our team has the experience necessary to tackle a wide variety of asbestos remediation and removal tasks and can even deal with other hazardous materials on your property. If you’re interested in removing all risk of asbestos in your home or business, be sure to contact us today.