On Monday 20th November a fire in the early hours caused extensive damage to a property on the corner of Riddle Street and Talbot St in Fairlie. We now know that the property contains asbestos which was also damaged in the fire.
We made arrangements to safely demolish the remains of the badly damaged buildings and to remove the potentially contaminated material. This has now been completed by a specialist contractor. We took samples of the remaining soil for testing and the results are negative for asbestos.
As a final measure, we are applying some shingle to the site to level off the surface.
There were concerns that the children’s playground may have been partly contaminated. We undertook some asbestos testing of surface and air samples and the results showed there are no concerns for the playground. However, we will be cleaning the playground before we reopen it to the public.
We are on track for the fencing to be removed and for the roads and playground to reopen later this afternoon.
This has been an unexpected and complex piece of work and we are very grateful for everyone’s patience over the last week. We are particularly grateful to the contractors who stepped in at short notice to undertake the work, and for the understanding of the surrounding businesses.
This will be the final update on this incident.
