Asbestos and hazmat removal in the nick of time in Camden

The former Concord Chemical Inc. (Photo courtesy of DVRBS)

A little late with this one, but you'll have to forgive me--I don't look across the Delaware often enough, and sometimes I'm a little late getting the Jersey news. And what a story this one is: a possible arsonist on the loose in Camden, plus 2010 budget cutbacks in the fire department (always a good idea, shrinking the service that keeps us all from catching fire), bringing on some federal involvement in the form of the ATF.

Oh, and one more thing: a near-miss on chemical explosions and potentially fatal asbestos exposure for the firefighters sent to put out the six-alarm blaze. You see what you miss when you turn your back on Jersey?

(Image courtesy of DVRBS)

Asbestos and "400 containers of hazardous, flammable chemicals" on the scene were declared completely removed by the EPA in March, after a six month cleaning process. Spokesman for the [Camden] Mayor's Office Robert Corrales said: "It could have been really bad." 


Corrales was referring to the hundred of barrels of flammable chemicals and asbestos which, though undeniably fireproof, would have been spread throughout the neighborhood, contaminating a community already devastated by two previous fires set this month.


The Concord Chemical factory had interesting history. Historians at the Delaware Valley Rhythm & Blues Society gave a brief (but very informative) summary of the now-burnt property's history:

The Dobbins Soap Manufacturing Company, founded in 1863, had a factory in Philadelphia at Germantown Ave, Susquehanna Ave, and the southwest corner of Marshall Street which they had remodeled in 1864 and 1865. Owned by the Cragin family, by 1887 the firm had built a factory on the southwest corner of 17th Street and Federal Street, where they operated until 1934. George Cragin was the superintendent from 1887 through 1906, Louis Bresset had the position in 1914, and Alex Macfeat had it in 1924.

The plant was acquired by the Iowa Soap Company, which operated the facility into the late 1940s. At some point after 1959 the Concord Chemical Company moved its operations from 205 South 2nd Street to this building, which is still into the late-2000s. The building was then abandoned, and an EPA team did a clean-up in 2010.

On June 19, 2011 the old soap factory, known roughly 50 years as the Concord Chemical factory, was destroyed by fire.

One product that used to be made at 17th & Federal (Photo from DVRBS)

Great stuff. (The history, not the fire.) The idea of an arsonist on the loose in the Philly area really creeps me out. Behavioral scientists say that bed-wetting, arson, and cruelty to animals are three traits that most serial killers display in their youth. Not saying the arsonist or arsonists are serial killers, but I would not be surprised if this person/ group of people were responsible for some other crimes.


Well that's all for today in asbestos/ arson news. Let's hope it stays that way, for the safety of the people of Camden and Philadelphia. Much love to the Camden Fire Department. I'm glad they were not exposed to asbestos as so many firefighters have been in the past, and even more than the asbestos, I am glad the chemicals were removed. Fires are dangerous enough without gigantic explosions.

A Camden firefighter puts out the six-alarm blaze. (Photo courtesy of DVRBS)

  

Metal scrappers get asbestos exposure at former Clemente Middle School

Juliana Reyes painted a grim picture of the former Roberto Clemente Middle School at Fifth and Luzerne:

Gregory Betancourt perches on an overturned love seat and peers through a stripped window frame into a darkened six-story building.He sees a pile of filthy clothes, a mattress and a lot of darkness. Discarded tires and empty soda bottles clutter the concrete around him. A wooden plank on the ground nearby - what used to be the top of a school desk, maybe - is still legible: "Property of the Philadelphia School District - 1988," it reads.

The old Roberto Clemente Middle School closed in 1994, and relocated to West Erie and North Front. Before it was a middle school named for the Puerto Rican baseball great, it was an Apex Hosiery factory. Reyes says students at the original Clemente called their school "The Pantyhose Factory."

(Note: Do not Google the phrase "pantyhose factory" unless you want to be inundated with pornography. For more information about the old pantyhose factory, read this heart-breaking article from 1954 about Apex in Philadelphia, and this one from 1937.)

After its first two lives as a pantyhose factory and a middle school, Reyes reports that the building became the Greater Philadelphia Book Bank, "a pet project of businessman Robert Graves. The Book Bank, a place for teachers to get books for free, shut down in 2007. Graves said the School District couldn't afford to keep the building open anymore."

Clemente is now abandoned, as it has been for four years, leaving it open for scrapper seeking copper wire and other building materials to sell. A recent article in Philadelphia Weekly by Michael Alan Goldberg explored the dangers unleashed by scrappers tearing up the walls:

The presence of asbestos comes as no surprise to 49-year-old Jose Lisojo, owner of JL Custom Shop on Rising Sun Avenue, which faces the back of the Clemente building. Standing outside his garage, Lisojo and his friend Ray—a carpenter who says he’s certified to remove asbestos—point to pipe wrappings inside the building that they’re certain contain asbestos. Both mention the white dust that comes out of the property every day. 

“[Scrappers are] poisoning the air around here,” Lisojo complains. He says he’s called the city’s 311 hotline repeatedly to report asbestos contamination, but claims no one takes him seriously. “One time the guy told me, ‘Don’t worry—you won’t get sick for 20 or 30 years,’” says Lisojo, shaking his head.

Philadelphia School District Spokeswoman Elizabeth Childs said the district's Facilities Management Division monitors the building daily, and cleans the site monthly. It also "routinely welds doors shut and closes openings in windows on the ground level," but somehow, scrappers still get in.

 

Philadelphia Health Department spokesman Jeff Moran told Philly.com that the district has been cited by the city's Air Management Services: "To comply, the district must either seal the building or remove the asbestos. The district will work with an asbestos abatement contractor as well as a vacant property specialist to seal the property, Moran said."

What do you say, readers? Do you see an asbestos abatement project happening anytime soon at the old Roberto Clemente? Or will it take some kind of tragedy to motivate the underfunded city government to make this dangerous asbestos den a priority? Call me a pessimist, but I'm betting on the latter.

McDonald Elementary will keep name and location, and lose the asbestos

Warminster's McDonald Elementary will keep its name and its location on Street Road and Reeves Lane in Warminster. Everything else—asbestos included—must go. Montgomery News' Natalya Bucuy reports that the new McDonald Elementary (plans for the new school shown above) will retain only its name and address as the school begins its new stage in a modern building's life cycle: asbestos abatement, demolition, and reconstruction.

The school's construction project is planned to begin shortly and will continue through the end of 2012. An earlier article about the fate of Warminter's elementary schools in The Intelligencer placed the new school's opening somewhere in early 2013, though the new article provides no updated estimate.

The soon-to-begin construction project and others are part of a plan to streamline public education in the Bucks County and Montgomery County region. Bucuy writes that “the new McDonald Elementary, along with the renovated Willow Dale Elementary School and the new Davis Elementary School, will replace the district’s current six elementary schools by consolidating them into three.”

In the same meeting in which these terms for the new schools were established, officials approved the closing Alta S. Leary Elementary School in Warminster effective this September. Any Alta S. Leary grads among us, readers? Feel free to share some fond memories in the comment section.

And to the kids and parents of Warminster: congratulations! No asbestos exposure for you. Now if we could just get around to doing this in all Philly public schools, we'd be set.