“If I’m a neighbor and I have small children, I’d be pretty concerned,” said Dr. Gabriel Filippelli, a professor, and executive director of Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute. “Once you burn [a] home, the paint degrades and turns into ash. And if there was lead in the bottom layer, for example, that does have the potential then to scatter around and be potentially quite harmful to children.” Bloomington fire exercise believed to have spread lead debris | wthr.com
A Pre-1978 Structure Burning in Bloomington, Indiana, in November 2021. The fire was set by the Bloomington Fire Department for use as a training exercise. Please click on the link: Bloomington fire exercise believed to have spread lead debris | wthr.comA Pre-1978 two-flat structure burning in downtown at 17-19 Richards Street, Geneva, Illinois, December 16, 2018. 1978 was the year leaded paint manufacture was banned in the U.S. Lead paint was sold until about 1986. The fire was set by the Geneva Fire Department for use as a training exercise. At least one Geneva physician warned about the potential for lead pollution because of this fire, but he was ghosted by the GFD and by City Hall.The two-flat home was at 17-19 Richards before it was burned by the Geneva City Council and the GFD. 327 North Fourth street Geneva was converted into a two-flat ca1980 by Mayor Richard Lewis and then sold to Rodney Nelson in 1982 for use as affordable housing.The house at 64 North Peck Road was to be burned to the ground by the Geneva Fire Department over the weekend of June 10-12, 2022. An alarm was raised by a small group of Genevans and a single alderwoman. The home is about 1500 feet upwind from the Heartland Elementary playground. This alarm prevented a repeat of the Bloomington, Indiana, fiasco. Another Alderman said after the “indefinite” postponement: “Fire training has been postponed for now. It is City-owned and we couldn’t find a buyer for $1 if they moved it [again!]. I toured the house and there is little left of the interior that would make it historic.” This historic house was moved to Peck Road from the block just south of the 327 North Fourth 2-flat depicted above in about 1982 to make room for a larger playground at Fourth Street School.
Rod's Ramblings and Ruminations 