Tustin Has Spent More Than $54 Million To Clean Up The Navy Hangar Fire

Orange County and the city of Tustin renewed their requests Tuesday for state and federal assistance to clean up after the fire that engulfed a World War Two hangar in November.

Tustin officials estimate the city has spent more than $54 million so far to address the fire, including monitoring air quality, hiring a contractor to remove the remaining hangar doors, and removing potentially asbestos-laden debris from surrounding properties.

(Read: Tustin Students Brought Home Hangar Fire Debris From School, Parents Say)

Debris from the fire fell across approximately 6.5 square miles, affecting more than 1,500 homes and 14,000 people, according to city documents.

In separate meetings Tuesday, the O.C. Board of Supervisors and Tustin City Council each renewed their initial emergency declarations following the fire, the first step to receiving state and federal disaster aid.

'We need help'

Tustin Mayor Austin Lumbard said the Navy had "frankly failed to act" to respond to the fire, so the city was forced to step in and, now, to extend the local emergency period.

Lumbard also accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of stonewalling city and county officials, who initially asked for disaster aid shortly after the fire broke out two months ago.

"We need help," Lumbard said at the special city council meeting Tuesday. "We need help from the state, we need help from the federal government, potentially, and the Navy. And we need the governor to act." 

Lumbard later told LAist via email that city officials had met with representatives of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services on Dec. 18 and were told that a state declaration of emergency was unnecessary since the Navy is responsible for the hangar.

A representative for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lumbard told LAist a state emergency declaration was a necessary step toward potentially unlocking funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that could help individual residents and organizations, like the Tustin Unified School District, that have been affected by the fire.

Asbestos cleanup still underway

The city has received $11 million from the Navy under a cooperative agreement, but Lumbard said individual residents and organizations outside of city government aren't eligible for funding under that agreement.

Navy spokesperson Bill Franklin told LAist that additional funding from the Navy "is anticipated" to help cover the costs of the ongoing fire response.

The city's contracted asbestos remediation specialists have responded to 92% of requests for fire debris cleanup and remediation, according to the city's website. But Lumbard said that after the recent rain and high winds, debris had shown up in places that had already been cleaned.

The Navy has yet to remove debris from in and around the burn site. Franklin told LAist "the start date for debris removal is unknown."

He said plans would first need approval from state and federal regulators. "This deliberative process is intended to ensure the safety of both the community and the environment," Franklin wrote in an email.

In the meantime, debris from the immediate site has been sealed in place, temporarily, with a biodegradable substance designed to suppress dust and stabilize soil.

County supervisors nudge governor for aid

On Monday, O.C. supervisors Don Wagner and Vicente Sarmiento sent a letter to Newsom urging him to support a hangar fire disaster declaration. Both supervisors represent communities around the hangar burn site.

They wrote that the "unexpected cost" to Tustin for fire response "has resulted in an unsustainable burden that poses a real risk of a fiscal emergency."

They noted that the cleanup needs to "extend well beyond City borders" and that many of the impacted schools have students who qualify for free meals.