By Todd Sumlin
The Charlotte Observer
Copyright 2007 The News and Observer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte firefighter John Tarsia drags a hose back to the truck following a training fire in west Charlotte on Wednesday. Firefighters are razing homes in the neighborhood to make way for a new development.
The Charlotte Fire Department has been burning two buildings a day in the old Westwood Apartment complex for training. Some neighbors are happy the complex’s 76 buildings will no longer offer refuge to drug dealers and prostitutes.
“This will really clean up the neighborhood,” Martiza Jaime said. But since the burning started, Patricia Marshall said she has had difficulty sleeping during the afternoon for her third-shift job because of the smoke.
Added resident Willie Howze: “There’s no telling what’s coming off the stuff they’re burning.” The training in the west Charlotte neighborhood is scheduled to last another month.
Firefighters removed all the furniture as well as potentially cancer-causing asbestos from the Westwood buildings, department officials said. But some residents expressed concern about vinyl siding and the daily doses of smoke.
Mecklenburg County’s air quality department regulates only asbestos in the demolition of buildings, director Don Willard said. He said the vinyl siding should not pose much of a risk.
Still, Willard said air quality officials would look into any complaints about fumes or smoke when it’s blown toward nearby homes or trapped close to the ground by low temperatures.
Both happened last week, fire training chief Kevin Gordon said.
After some residents complained to the fire department, training officials decided to burn 20 to 30 fewer buildings and set fire only to those farthest from nearby homes, Gordon said.
Fire officials also will work with the National Weather Service to determine days that have unfavorable atmospheric conditions or too much wind for burning.