Sept. 21 -- CITY OF NEWBURGH, NY -- Newburgh is moving firefighters and an engine out of its West End firehouse on Upper Broadway until abatement of asbestos-containing debris of repairs of areas where water damage caused the debris to come loose.
Three to four fighters were usually stationed at the firehouse, which is located at 492 Broadway. They will work out of the main firehouse on Grand Street while the city undertakes more testing and determines the scope of the needed abatement, Assistant Fire Chief Bill Horton said on Friday.
The firehouse is considered important because of its location on the city's west end. The main firehouse is on the east end.
"Ideally we want to get the guys back there as quickly as we can," Horton said. "It's safer for the city as a whole to be on both sides of the city, not one."
A contractor hired in response to mold and air-quality concerns at the firehouse found debris from asbestos-containing material in the building's first-floor kitchen, a stairwell and a second-floor bathroom.
Plaster coating a kitchen wall, joint compound on the wall of a first-floor stairwell to the second floor, and plaster coating a column outside a second-floor bathroom were each asbestos-containing, according to a letter from Quality Environmental Solutions & Technologies Inc.
Per state Department of Labor code, the areas pose "an imminent danger to the health and safety of the public or an asbestos-related risk to the health and safety of the public from release of airborne asbestos fibers."
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