Sep 17, 2010 - Asbestos Alert in Clean Up of San Bruno Fire
Crews are advising precautions for protection against contaminants, including asbestos, by all who live in the San Bruno area where last week a PG&E natural gas line exploded. The explosion resulted in a huge fire, nearly 60 destroyed and damaged homes, four deaths, several missing, and over fifty injured. Unfortunately, winds were high and swept the fire throughout much of the neighborhoods off Interstate 280. The fire shot flames up to nearly 1000 feet high, with ash falling up to a ¼ mile away, and is estimated to have consumed a 10 acre area.
When pipes explode in this manner, often contaminants and dangerous debris is spread and left behind, causing a serious health risk. Any older homes and dwellings destroyed and damaged in the fire were likely to contain asbestos, a known carcinogen that can cause mesothelioma and other lung cancers if inhaled.
Clean up crews are in the area, keeping debris and ash wet down and removing it from surrounding roads and buildings. Wetting down asbestos keeps it from becoming airborne, when it is most easily inhaled or ingested and poses the most risk.
Even a single fiber of asbestos can cause mesothelioma, an incurable cancer that develops decades after exposure in the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart. All efforts are being done to make sure this does not occur to workers or residents.
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