Residents Call For More Help Amid Tustin Fire Clean Up

Massive metal and wooden doors are about all that's left of the 17-story-high, World War II-era blimp hangar that burned to the ground in Tustin over the past month. Lowering of the doors will begin on Thursday and is expected to take at least two weeks, according to city officials.

Cleanup crews have been getting the cranes and other heavy equipment needed to remove the doors gently. That's in large part because the building is covered in asbestos, lead, and potentially other toxins that they're trying to prevent from spreading further into the surrounding community.

"These doors will be lowered, again, slowly and controlled by not one, but two cranes on site in order to make sure that safety is paramount," said Colin Cummings, operations section chief with Innovative Emergency Management, the company hired by the city to handle the work.

Speaking on a public webinar Wednesday, Cummings said crews would also clean up the ground around where the doors will come down to make sure it's clear of potentially toxic debris.

"Noise will be mitigated, safety will be paramount, and air monitoring will continue," Cummings said.

A separate company that's been working on the cleanup, ATI Restoration, will also begin work to lower structures that sit atop the huge concrete pillars framing the doors, Cummings said.

The doors will not be removed from the property, which is owned by the U.S. Navy. Navy spokesperson Chris Dunne told LAist earlier this week that the Navy was "actively working to procure a separate contract to conduct the remaining required deconstruction and to remove debris from the hangar footprint itself."

Asbestos and lead

There has yet to be a full accounting of the damage caused by the fire that burned for more than three weeks, closing schools, forcing residents to stay inside and, in some cases, to temporarily move out of the area.

Debris and ash from the fire has tested positive for asbestos, and air quality monitoring from the early days of the fire found lead and arsenic inside the smoke plume.

A 2017 city-commissioned investigation into potential reuse of the other, nearly identical hangar on the old military base noted lead paint covering many parts of the building and extensive use of cement asbestos panels in the construction.

More than 600 disaster remediation workers have been dispatched to clean up fire debris tainted with asbestos on the former military base and in surrounding neighborhoods.

(

Jill Replogle

/

LAist

)

Tustin city spokesperson Stephanie Najera said Wednesday that they had received around 2,500 requests from residents to have debris from the fire tested for asbestos and removed from their yards. Those requests came through the city's hotline or online reporting portal set up after the fire broke out. Cummings said more than 600 disaster remediation workers are helping to clean up the fire debris in surrounding neighborhoods.

Scott Wiedensohler, local division chief at the Orange County Fire Authority, said during the webinar that work was more than 60% complete as of late last week.

Still, requests from residents to test and remove fire debris keep coming in — Najera said Wednesday the city had received 37 new calls in the last 24 hours.

Fear and frustration mount among residents and city officials

At a city council meeting this week, residents and city council members expressed frustration at what they said was a lack of help for the cleanup from local, state and federal officials, and guidance from public health officials.

Susan Keefe, a resident of Tustin’s Columbus Square neighborhood, which sits right across the street from the burnt out hangar, told the council that neighbors "have been asking for a detailed testing plan for weeks.

"Not just the air quality, because as my neighbors have pointed out, it's not just about the air quality. It's about soil, it's about wipes on surfaces," she said.

Keefe said she wanted the Navy to immediately start a fund so that people can get the inside of their homes tested — the city contracted remediation companies only handle yards and public right-of-ways.

City council members, including Mayor Austin Lumbard, said they shared their constituents' frustrations.

"We are your neighbors, we have kids in those schools," Lumbard said. "We are not the health professionals of the city, but we are your advocates, and we will be working to get answers from the county and other environmental agencies on simple questions: Can I walk my dog? Can I open my doors? Can I hose down my driveway? Those things deserve responses because I know it's impacting your everyday life."

Councilmember Ryan Gallagher said the city had already committed $30 million dollars to the cleanup effort, money that it doesn't have to spare. That's equivalent to more than one-third the city's anticipated general fund revenue for the current fiscal year.

"We cleared the coffers. We are down to our minimum amount in our reserves," Gallagher said.

He said the work needed to fully clean and remediate the city after the fire couldn't be done without funding from the state and the Navy.

Orange County declared an emergency soon after the hangar fire broke out, the first step toward receiving assistance from the state. But the state has yet to respond to the declaration.

The Tustin City Council unanimously passed a resolution this week to increase pressure on state and federal officials for help.

Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, told LAist in an email that staff from the office had been providing support and technical assistance to first responders since the fire broke out.

As for a disaster declaration, he wrote: "State law dictates that local governments must demonstrate that a disaster is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the county or city and that state aid is necessary."

Ferguson said state officials are working with local officials on damage assessments "to determine if that criteria has been met."