Asbestos Scares Away Customers
The owner of a Craig, Colorado furniture company whose business is located across the street from a burned-out mall didn’t think the fire would affect his business until someone hung “Danger Asbestos” signs on the charred remains of the stores.
“…they walk around in their space suits in there,” Steve Bell, owner of The Furniture Gallery of Craig, told the Craig Daily Press. “I wonder if people look at that and worry if it’s dangerous to come around here.”
“There’s a lot of comments from people coming into the store, asking when that eyesore is going to go away,” said Bell, wondering just how much his store is being affected by the “danger” signs and the space-suit clad workers.
Although the Craig Police Department has not had any need of the Country Mall site since December, Chief Walt Vanatta said city officials cannot process a demolition permit until the asbestos is cleaned up.
“There’s no point in condemning a building if it can’t be torn down,” said Dave Costa, Craig community development director.
One company, King¬ston Environmental Services, has thus far submitted a bid to the Country Mall’s owners for hazardous material cleanup. Other than asbestos, no other materials need to be removed, said Roy White, Kingston western regional manager.
But the owners say they’re waiting for insurance money before they clean up the asbestos, a hazardous material that has been proven to cause asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma, an asbestos cancer that causes debilitating systems and usually kills its victims within a year of diagnosis.
“By law, the Country Mall site needs hazardous material cleanup,” said White. “Some areas of flooring had a 25 percent asbestos contamination,” he noted, and there were several other contamination findings as well.
He added that it is possible for wind to blow asbestos from one area to another, validating Bell’s concern about his business across the street.