Shortly after 4 p.m. last Friday, one of the city's two heating boilers blew up, sending smoke and asbestos fibers through the ducts and knocking the door off the ground floor mechanical room.
Air tests done on Saturday morning showed that asbestos fibers were hanging in the air at unsafe levels in at least a couple locations at City Hall, which forced the complete closure of the building while experts dealt with the problem, officials said.
What they did was to run high-powered fans with lots of filters on ever floor for a day to replace all of the air in the building several times over.
Tests on Sunday determined that the asbestos was gone, except from the mechanical room where the boiler is located. It is completely sealed off now.
What happens next is that a cleanup firm is going to go in to the sealed off room wearing those spaceman-type suits and take care of the mess.
I'll have the details later about what seems to have happened, but it appears the city may have to replace one or both of its half century-old boilers at City Hall, a potentially costly necessity.
In the meantime, city officials say the building is safe for employees and the public.
More to come on all of this later. I only heard it about late yesterday but I've got a lot to pass on now.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
8 comments:
This happened last Friday and you're reporting on it 5 days later. There were big condom-like balloons hanging out of City Hall windows all weekend along with a "DANGER" sign and that yellow police tape.
Looks like you need to get out of the office and onto the beat more Steve.
I was at City Hall Friday, but my day ended before the explosion.
I was off Saturday and off Sunday.
On Monday, I was reporting on something else, but heard nothing about it when I did go to City Hall about 5 o'clock (and stayed there until 9!).
I learned about on Tuesday, but the first opportunity I had to write anything was today.
That's how it goes sometimes.
There's an old adage -- "Better late than never."
And another - It ain't news until we print it. ;)
Elected bodies love to cut capital improvement plans. Need to keep taxes low but can't get the unions to budge? Cut capital! Who needs roads and sidewalks and boilers? *kaboom*
Do they actually need boilers in the city hall ?? There is so much hot air being blown up folks bottoms , I didn't imagine there would be need for supplemental heating .
less than a week and the firefighters are already filing claims? for what, don't they have equipment for these types of things? unbelievable.
4:41 Why are the unions blammed for everything in Bristol? No matter what happens in Bristol there is someone to blame the unions for it. Your tax dollars pay for more than city worker wages. It sounds like you drink the anti-union Cockayne Kool Aid.
It is time to stop beating the dead horse.
"...big condom-like balloons..."
LMAO! That's good!
I can see it now - all city employees filing for sick claims! Get real - you would have to be an A** to think 2-3 mins exposure is going to cause you to get sick. As for the firemen - yes they do have masks why didn't they use them? Sounds like they were not thinking before entering a building without the proper gear. Of course if you repremand them the Unions will say you are "picking on them" give me a break!!
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