Sly Fox Rubble Suspected to Contain Asbestos

On April 25, sometime after midnight, the Sly Fox bar on 13th and Market Streets in Parkersburg, West Virginia, burned. A mother and daughter living above the bar managed to jump 30 feet to safety. There were no injuries, and bar patrons evacuated the building without incident, according to fire and police officials.

The fire was serious enough to draw fire crews from not only Parkersburg, but the Vienna and Lubeck fire departments as well.

The following day, Saturday, Bosley Construction tore down the building to prevent its becoming a safety hazard by falling on power lines or nearby streets. Said streets were closed off, and electric service suspended until the demolition was complete.

The Sly Fox used to be in an adjacent building, until that burned down. Then the bar moved to the 1225 Market Street address, where it again burned down. Arson is confirmed as the cause of this second fire, and may have been the cause of the first as well.

The owner of the property, Bill Richardson Jr., said he had received offers from firms interested in removing the rubble, but insisted it would only be fair to put the project out for bid. The debris remains on the site.

Richardson recently inherited the property from Charles Frederick Starkey III, of Parkersburg, who died on March 10. Richardson, working with Starkey's widow to design a new establishment, has said he wants to get the site cleaned up as soon as possible so that he can rebuild.

So, while an investigation into what (or who) might have caused the fire, Richardson and Gary Moss of the Parkersburg Code Enforcement office work under the constraints of an ongoing arson investigation, salvaging whatever can be saved, and insuring that the debris doesn't contain asbestos. This, Moss noted, requires the services of a qualified and trained on-site asbestos inspector, and hiring such an individual is Richardson's responsibility.

As reported on July 2 on WTAP-TV by Lauren Weppler, many people in the medium-sized town of Parkersburg, population about 32,000, are concerned by the possibility that the debris does contain asbestos, and, if so, that the health risks posed by the fire, demolition and persistently remaining debris - which is neither covered nor contained - are increasing as time goes on.

The state's Department of Health and Human Resources representative, Anthony Turner - who heads the Radiation, Toxics and Indoor Air Division - says the asbestos doesn't present a danger as long as people stay away.

Asbestos fibers can become airborne and, when they do, can be ingested or inhaled, leading to a number of diseases, including respiratory and digestive system cancers, including malignant mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma, a particularly lethal form of cancer whose only known cause is asbestos, results from irritation in the mesothelial lining of the chest and abdomen. This irritation creates lesions which can lead to cancer.

Designated as one of the "silent killer" diseases, mesothelioma typically lies dormant for several decades before producing symptoms definitive enough to result in diagnosis. By that time, most mesothelioma patients are given about a year to live.

There is no minimum, safe level for asbestos exposure. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration, or OSHA, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the American Cancer Society agree; a day or a lifetime can trigger mesothelioma.

Turner has assured a concerned citizenry that the Sly Fox site debris will be cleaned and removed as though it did contain asbestos, but much of the work that created said debris has already been done, potentially releasing asbestos into the air around the Market Street address.

Sources: US Census Bureau, WTAP-TV, News and Sentinel

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