Richmond residents concerned about health two weeks after industrial fire
RICHMOND, Ind. (WISH) — Two weeks after the Richmond industrial fire, some residents are returning to their homes to start cleaning up while concerned about their health after particulates were released in the air.
Robert Gioeli lives less than half a mile from where the fire occurred. He says when he finally returned, his house was full of soot. Now, he and his partner have to empty the house to clean it and everything they own from top to bottom.
“You know, now we’re just cleaning it up wearing N95s, hopefully, that’s enough to mitigate some of the health risks,” said Gioeli.
Gioeli says he has a 7-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter and is taking cleaning very seriously because he does not want them to breathe in any particulates.
“It makes me kinda nervous because what if I don’t do a good job cleaning it up, because there were I think thousands of chemicals in that building,” said Gioeli. “So, just to know they could be exposed to more if I can’t get it all cleaned up is kind of concerning.”
The Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies held a community “Help Line Live” event where people could ask questions after the fire.
“Yeah, I worry a lot,” said Floyed Holmes, a resident that lives two and a half blocks away from the fire.
“I worry about chemicals and asbestos getting into my house, around my house where you can’t see or later on. Something can happen later from this fire. We just don’t know,” Holmes said.
Many were upset this fire happened after the business was cited for unsafe practices and nothing was done.
“I’m upset because the guy didn’t do anything, or let’s put it this way, whoever was supposed to take care of it didn’t but that’s how life goes,” said Kebra Hoskins, a resident who lives one block away from the fire site.
Others say former health concerns are now top of mind with the additional risk from the fire. Frederick Lee Scott lives in the evacuation zone with his wife Sue Ann Scott, who is a cancer survivor.
“We wanted to make sure that she gets all the information she needs to know what the chemicals are, what they are going to do to us in the long haul,” said Frederick. “And it just seemed like we came here, we thought it would be more organized, but it didn’t seem like it was that organized.”
People returning to the city were given clean-up kits with dish soap, rags, masks, and gloves to wash their houses. Residents say they were instructed to only pick up any remaining debris with gloves on and to double bag it before throwing it away.