When the former Housatonic Wire factory on River Street was partially demolished on Monday, neighbor Sarah Lynn Longman wasn’t happy.
It wasn’t that the Church Street resident didn’t want the fire-ravaged building torn down, but she expected to have been told that it was happening.
Since the Sept. 11 fire destroyed much of the old industrial relic, Longman has been concerned about the air quality in her neighborhood, especially after it was confirmed that debris from the fire that littered her lawn contained asbestos.
Longman, who is 36 weeks pregnant, has been in contact with the Department of Environmental Protection and the state Department of Health in the weeks since the fire, and it was DEP testing that discovered the asbestos debris, she said.
“They told us that we would be informed when the building was going to be demolished,” Longman said Tuesday. “The public should be aware of these things,” she said.
When she contacted the health department after the demolition, she was told that because of a “miscommunication” between the building owner and the contractor, required air quality testing was not done, Longman said.
“I was told there would be air quality checks done, but that didn’t happen,” she said.
After the fire, she and her husband were displaced from their home for two weeks, Longman said. After they brought in a private company to test the air in their house. Those results came back as clear, so they moved back in, she said.
But now she fears the outside air quality isn’t what it should be. And because only a small and relatively clean part of the building was torn down, she’s afraid what’s to come when the rest of the building is demolished.
“I understand that the furnace room is filled with asbestos,” Longman’s father-in-law Bill Longman said. “People should be aware of what’s happening so they can be prepared.”
The Longmans were at Town Hall Tuesday night because the Board of Selectmen were scheduled to discuss the Housatonic Wire demolition. But the contractor scheduled to speak at the meeting couldn’t make it, First Selectman Paul Roy said, so the item was tabled.
The Longmans left without getting the answers they were seeking.
“Everyone is pointing fingers,” Sarah Lynn said, “and the town is not taking responsibility for anything.”
