A dumping site for several bags of possible asbestos-tainted demolition materials was found inside a shed, behind a house being demolished on Homer Street in southwest Detroit on Tuesday.
The contractor doing the demolition for the city is The Farrow Group.
Mike Farrow tells 7 Action News they stopped the demolition so that the potential crime scene would not be disturbed and so that the material would not become airborne.
They called both the city and state Department of Environmental Quality, but as of Wednesday afternoon very little had changed on the site.
A flimsy plastic fence was put up and a red tape - like police crime scene tape - that said Warning Asbestos.
The site is in the Mexicantown part of Detroit. Several families with kids live on Homer Street. Many are concerned this is an unprotected hazard.
A survey of the house shows it was built in 1914, long before Asbestos became a hazardous material. It also showed three areas in the house that identified as Asbestos.
But a contractor cleared that and deemed the entire site safe for demolition on April 21. That means the bags were dumped after that.
The DEQ tells 7 Action News it has taken samples of the materials and could have results as early as Thursday.
No Detroit city officials would to on camera but gave us this statement:
Health and safety is of the highest priority for Detroit's demolition program. Once the DBA was notified Tuesday afternoon about the bags of material discovered inside the shed at 8094 Homer, the DBA sent out a field liaison to document the condition. That inspector arrived within minutes and took photos of the material. This morning MDEQ took samples to test the material. While results are pending, the Detroit Building Authority has sent a hazardous materials removal company to remove the bags. Removal is scheduled for this evening.
We will work with the MDEQ to look into this matter as well and we will not comment further on Farrow based on pending litigation unrelated to this issue.
