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Kettering Tower opens top floors for tenants
Tests reveal top five floors are not showing high levels of asbestos following last week's fire.
Friday, November 03, 2006
DAYTON — Tests indicate the top five floors of the 30-story Kettering Tower do not have elevated concentrations of asbestos, which helps clear the way for tenants to reoccupy those floors more than a week after an electrical fire caused significant damage to the building.
A spokeswoman for tower co-owner Hertzl Moezinia said the test results came back late Thursday afternoon. Moezinia said Thursday about 10 tenants on floors above the fire have been temporarily displaced, though most found other space in the tower.
Extras
The Oct. 26 fire damaged the 23rd and 24th floors of the 37-year-old building at 40 N. Main St. Firefighters, in their efforts to combat the blaze, broke through ceilings to expose steel beams sprayed with asbestos as a fire retardant.
The top 10 floors of the tower were evacuated Wednesday after safety officials detected elevated levels of asbestos on several upper floors.
Moezinia, of New York, co-owns the tower with Uri Mermelstein. Moezinia flew in from New York on Wednesday to replace Mermelstein, who was on site since Monday.
Moezinia said they've been "working with a lot of environmental companies and the Ohio Department of Health, OSHA, the local building department, and the local Environmental Protection Agency, to put together a plan to get the building up and running. The main problem is to try to get the electrical back on line (floor 23 is still without electric) and get the air cleaned," he said. "There's no structural damage."
The Regional Air Pollution Control Agency has had several meetings with tower management and state agencies regarding the asbestos, said Bruno Maier, supervisor of monitoring for RAPCA.
Maier said before the area can be re-occupied tower management must submit a plan of how they are going to contain the area. There's no deadline for when the plan must be submitted. A private meeting with tenants is planned today in the tower to hear their concerns, Moezinia said.
