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Portland Kmart fire dropped 'not nearly' as much asbestos as initially feared, officials say

Initial testing confirmed asbestos in some debris, but officials said subsequent testing showed much less contamination than the initial results had suggested.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Health officials met with residents at the Parkrose School District Office over the weekend to address concerns about asbestos in debris that landed in the neighborhood during last week's Kmart fire, and they had some good news: the contamination now appears to be less widespread than initially feared.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced that asbestos had been found in debris at Luuwit View Park last week and warned neighbors to avoid contact with all ash and debris from the fire until crews could do further testing and cleanup. 

Every chair was filled at the meeting, and more neighbors joined online and in an overflow room down the street, all wanting to know what their families were exposed to and what to do about it.

After testing more samples in the past few days, the state officials said the asbestos is not as widespread as they once thought.

“There’s not nearly as much asbestos as we feared after that first sample came back from the park," said David Farrer from the Oregon Health Authority. "That’s good news.”

The state and county are still running tests and the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to map out how far the debris spread. 

“The EPA has hired a contractor that is conducting that assessment to identify how far away from the burned building debris has been found," said Audrey O'Brien from the DEQ.

Credit: Eric Patterson
A fire destroyed the vacant former Kmart building in Northeast Portland on July 19, 2023.

The meeting lasted about two hours, but residents said they walked away with many of their questions still unanswered. 

“There was no information about other particles or other contaminates we may be exposed to," said Annie Paulson, a resident of Parkrose Heights.

“If we could have been provided with at least some type of map on telling us ‘Hey, this is the radius of what we think the contaminants are’," added Ben Batti, another Parkrose resident.

Both said they felt the city and county's response came too late.

“The city’s response was slow. Here we are five days later and I’m getting a trash bag and some gloves saying 'Hey, it's fine just wet it down'," Betti said.

Residents were offered plastic gloves, trash bags and masks on their way out. 

Despite the unknowns, the state officials said it is safe to clean up the debris. The Oregon Health Authority suggested watering down any ashy material before bagging it up.  The DEQ said its staff are still trying to find answers. 

“We’re not done identifying who’s going to do what. So, I want to take these questions back to our emergency response folks for answering,” said O'Brien.

Both Luuwit View and Knott parks are back open, but John Luby Park is still closed for cleaning.

The former Kmart building is leased by a company called Prologis, which is paying for the emergency response, according to state officials.

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