Asbestos concerns after Wickham woolsheds blaze

Asbestos concerns after Wickham woolsheds blaze

Following a massive fire that destroyed former woolsheds at a site in Wickham, near Newcastle this week, firefighters are assessing the damage and determining the level of contamination after it was confirmed that the site contained asbestos.

Residents nearby were evacuated after the blaze spread extensively and firefighters were forced to retreat. It is likely still burning even after the efforts of firefighters since the blaze began on Tuesday.

Chief Superintendent of Fire and Rescue NSW, Terry Farley, said crews are assessing the safety at the site and working on remediation plan.

“We’re working with council now and structural engineers to confirm the stability of the structure,” Mr Farley said.

“As you can imagine, once the building collapsed within each other, and there’s no roof, there’s nothing holding up the sides of the walls, so we’re working with council to make that safe.

“We’ve also set up atmospheric monitoring around the site to establish a safe zone.

“We’re working with the other agencies – EPA, council, police, Safe Work Australia, and the Ampol tank farm – to bring the incident to a conclusion.”

The major concern now is asbestos, with the roof of the building almost certainly containing the material.

“The major concern at the moment is that the roof was Super Six, as I understand it, so that’s an asbestos-based material,” Mr Humphrey said.

“We’ve received reports that to the west of the fire location, with would have been in accordance with the wind direction yesterday, that there could be some asbestos contamination of residences and schools.

“As the rest of the State prays for the rain to go away, we’re actually pretty happy it’s raining at the moment, because there’s an impact on wetting down the asbestos, that’s one of the mitigation factors, so that rain is welcome at the moment.”

The EPA has confirmed it is working on creating a website for local residents so that asbestos contamination reports can be available to the public.

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