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Eight months ago, a fire broke out at a massive World War II-era hangar in Tustin, spewing toxic smoke into the air and sending asbestos-laden debris raining over the surrounding communities. LAist has now mapped just how far and wide that debris fell and which neighborhoods bore the brunt of the fallout, based on data obtained from the city of Tustin.
The original files included hundreds of duplicate records, in part because many people had multiple interactions with the city's fire debris cleanup program. "It was a tremendous undertaking," said Tustin Mayor Austin Lumbard."We've made so much progress over these last months, and I'm very proud of it."
Workers hired by a condo association clean the exterior of homes in Columbus Square after testing in December found asbestos and lead.It’s important to note that the city's records for these and hundreds of other addresses where debris was reported are incomplete: Often, the records were not updated following inspection, making it hard to determine whether debris was found, and whether that debris likely contained asbestos, according to the records given to LAist by the city.
Other official testing from the early days of the fire found trace amounts of asbestos in air samples, and elevated levels of lead and other heavy metals inside the smoke plume, althoughand closed all parks. The Tustin Unified School District temporarily closed all of its schools and implemented distance learning. The Orange County Health Care Agency advised people to stay indoors, keep windows closed, and avoid touching ash or debris from the fire.
Some residents became frustrated after making multiple requests for cleanup. One resident reported to the city on Nov. 22:"This is my third submission. I need someone to inspect the ash on our patio and deck and roof and clean. I am a high-risk individual and have been displaced because of this." But interviews with residents and records show that debris often didn't stay put in inaccessible places. Some residents filed follow-up requests after rain or wind brought debris into areas that had already been cleaned. Rooftops were a major source of this recontamination.
When clean-up crews arrived at Lawrence's home in late November, workers advised him that the outdoor couches and other patio furniture in his backyard were contaminated and should be thrown away. But Lawrence said the workers provided no documentation of what they took or of the other remediation work they did on his property, which could be important for things like insurance claims and future liability.
Lawrence, for his part, ended up paying private companies to test his home for asbestos in mid-November and mid-December. They documented asbestos-laden fire debris on the roof, in the gutters, and in the backyard, according to their reports, which were reviewed by LAist. They did not find asbestos in dust samples taken inside his home.
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