SPOKANE, Wash. — Some families who lost their homes in recent Spokane-area fires are encountering an obstacle as they attempt to remove burned debris from their properties: a backlog of asbestos testing that could take months to complete.
Mountain Laboratories in Spokane Valley is the only asbestos testing lab in the area. While some have chosen to send samples out of state, the local lab is still facing increased demand. The lab has 500 to 600 samples from homes destroyed in the fires awaiting analysis.
“It’s horrific. I mean, we’re literally digging through what’s left of somebody’s house,” said Lisa Meade, laboratory manager at Mountain Laboratories.
Meade said the testing process is time-intensive. The number of samples required depends on the size of the home, but an average house generates 30 to 40. Each sample can take 30 minutes or longer to process, since ash from burned homes is made up of many different materials.
The lab has tested nearly 500 samples from the fires so far and found asbestos in only one of them. However, Meade said asbestos can appear in unexpected places, even in newer homes.
“We get surprises all the time. People will say ‘I know this doesn’t have asbestos in it,'” Meade said. “And then we’ll test it, and it’s like, lo and behold, there’s something that has asbestos in there.”
The lab faced a similar backup during the Medical Lake fire a few years ago. Now, the business has dedicated at least one analyst to focus on fire debris each day to help manage the workload.
“This is our community, and we’re trying to do our best to help these people who are waiting for these results to come in so that they can start the next phase of rebuild,” Meade said.
If asbestos is found, the property must go through a specific cleanup process before any demolition can occur.
In addition to asbestos testing, property owners must also obtain clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency before they can secure a demolition permit from the city. So far, Spokane has issued 13 demolition permits.
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