March 20, 2008, Houston, Texas – Former residents of a public housing development that was severely damaged in a fire that occurred only days after Thanksgiving 2007 have now discovered that asbestos damage may prevent them from recovering the personal possessions they had to leave behind.

Investigators said a candle that was left burning in a fifth-floor apartment had caused the fire. No residents were seriously hurt in the fire that forced more than 200 residents to evacuate the building.

The elderly former tenants of the Bellerive Apartment building are distraught over the news that their landlord—the Houston Housing Authority—says the clothing and furniture left behind in 61 of the 210 apartments in the building may be contaminated with asbestos. The asbestos was dispersed throughout almost a third of the apartments during the fire and fire-fighting activities.

The agency says they do not have the money to clean all of the contaminated items.

Following the fire, the HHA paid for tenants to occupy hotel rooms for several weeks, then each tenant was given the choice of living with friends or relatives (who were allotted a stipend of $30 per day), or moving into an apartment at the same rent they had paid at the Bellerive.

Many residents are understandably upset, particularly after many discovered that most of their possessions had been destroyed in the fire. HHA officials allowed tenants to return after the fire to collect personal possessions cleaned and packed by the agency, but found that very little had survived the fire when they went to do so.

Repair work on the building is scheduled to being shortly, and tenants want to retrieve their personal possessions, but have been told that their belongings will be destroyed if they do not arrange for clean-up before repair begins. HHA has told some of the tenants they must pay for the clean-up themselves.

Regina Woolfolk, HHA’s vice president of external affairs, says the agency will pay expenses for the clean-up of non-porous items, but its insurance won’t cover the much greater cost of cleaning porous items such as clothing and upholstery.

HHA’s chairman Tim Seckinger says he wants to find a way to “make everyone whole” but that in some cases asbestos removal from fabric simply won’t be possible.

Several tenants were told they would have to pay up to $3,400 to remove asbestos fibers from clothing and upholstery in their apartments. Woolfolk believes this is too high, and says the HHA is arranging a meeting that will allow tenants to negotiate more favorable estimates with asbestos clean-up firms.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Asbestos Abatement, Texas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.