LOUISVILLE, Ky. — During a community meeting Thursday, inside Highview Baptist Church, officials with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Louisville Metro Emergency Services (LMEMS) explained their plans and timeline for dismantling the Applegate Lane home that was found full of chemicals.
Chuck Berry, an EPA on-site coordinator, said crews will mobilize Oct. 8 to begin setting up the site, located at 6213 Applegate Lane.
Crews "will not begin dismantling any of the building structures" until at least Oct. 16, Berry said, with the process taking about 10 to 12 days to complete.
"Our effort has always been to reduce the impact on the local community," he said. "I think we have some mitigation efforts where that is possible."
Officials announced crews would be carrying out a "controlled mechanical approach" to remediate the home in September.
The process will begin with crews dismantling the home's roof and walls. Then, "little by little," contents from inside the home will be removed and placed into a steel tank in the backyard to be processed, allowing for it to be safely taken off-site and to a landfill.
"This is a very unique situation, with all different things compounded on top of each other," Jody Meiman, executive director of LMEMS, said. "The biggest things is to have trust in the process."
There are still some risks to this process, experts shared Thursday, explaining that 500 to 1,000 containers of unknown, white powder substances are strewn throughout home, owned by Mark Hibel.
"I myself have about 25-years in this industry, and I will say, in that 25-years, I have never seen anything like this," Berry said. "It's not just small bottles. It's pressure cookers, it's crock pots, it's refilled pill bottles, it's refilled soap containers, it's sample jars — it's everything."
Experts explained to take the substances off-site, they first need to crush and mix that powder with soil at the property, to dilute it.
"If you crush a container under pressure, that's a shock. It may go 'pop' or 'bang,'" Berry said. "That's actually part of our process. That's not a mistake."
Nearby residents may also see smoke or smell something strange during the process, he said, due to small, intentional burns crews may carry out.
The risk for a fire outbreak is "low, but not zero" Berry explained.
Fern Creek Fire will be on the site at all times throughout the process, along with air quality monitors from the EPA.
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