January 28, 2020

A group of Dearborn firefighters has been forced to sleep in their trucks while on their 24-hour shifts due to black mold problems. The mold was caused by flooding that occurred in Fire Station No. 5 on Oakwood Street a few weeks ago when Dearborn faced serious downpours.

Mold, which can develop and spread in just 48 hours, was discovered on a piece of drywall that was removed on January 22 when repairs were being undertaken by the City of Melvindale following a sewer backup at the station on January 9.

Dearborn Firefighters Union President Jeffrey Lentz says firefighters were sent to other stations temporarily while Fire Station No. 5 dealt with the flood damage. However, when the repairs were finished, the cleanup crew discovered the black mold.

There was so much of it, Lentz says, that the fire station is currently uninhabitable.

Rather than send firefighters temporarily to other stations as they had before, the fire chief of Fire Station No. 5 ordered firefighters to take their trucks to the Melvindale Civic Arena. Lentz says he’s happy the station was temporarily shut down but that he doesn’t agree with where the firefighters were put.

“Our firefighters understand with our profession, with working 24-hour shifts, that there will be times when we are tired and we are exhausted and sleep-deprived because of the 911 calls that come in and the citizens we serve,” said Lentz in an interview with FOX-2 Detroit. “But at the same time, we should be rested and able to perform those duties and we should not be forced to be staying up for an entire 24-hour shift and then expected to be able to make life and death decisions in a split second.”

The City of Melvindale currently owns Fire Station No. 5 and is responsible for the station’s maintenance. Black mold remediation will be necessary before the firefighters can return to the station.

What are the dangers of black mold?

Black mold is a toxic mold and it can be tricky to get rid of. Compared to asbestos abatement, which is a procedure used to control fiber release from asbestos, black mold remediation requires thorough cleaning and can take weeks in a building as large as a fire station. The abatement process would take up to five days in a building the size of a single-family home.

Because black mold is a toxic mold, it’s crucial to let professionals take care of the remediation. Symptoms of black mold exposure or black mold poisoning include:

• Respiratory illness
• Chronic coughing and sneezing
• Eye irritation
• Nose and throat irritation
• Chronic fatigue
• Skin rashes
• Persistent headaches

Although there’s no research to suggest that black mold can cause cancer or lung disease, it’s been known to cause other health concerns such as fungal meningitis of which there was an outbreak in 2012. That being said, if you discover black mold in your home, contact an abatement specialist immediately.

How can you prevent black mold?

To prevent black mold from growing in your home, it’s important to control moisture and the humidity level. Your interior humidity should stay under 60%. Tinted windows can help to block up to 79% of solar heat to cut down on cooling costs and to reduce humidity.

Black mold likes to grow in homes that have been flooded, so it’s important to dry any wet materials quickly and to repair leaks. Dry any items in your home thoroughly before storing them away.

Ultimately, dealing with black mold quickly and efficiently is vital not only because it can cause health issues for anyone breathing it in but also because it can do serious structural damage. Any building or space like Fire Station No. 5 needs to be completely dry and free of mold before anyone can safely enter the space without a ventilator mask.

source https://www.clarecountyreview.com/columns/contributed/dearborn-firefighters-forced-to-sleep-in-trucks-due-to-mold-concerns/

source https://www.law360.com/media/articles/1237692/insurer-denies-duty-to-defend-brad-pitt-charity-in-homes-suit

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Are your kids safe? Reports show mold, toxic chemicals in some schools go unaddressed  WLOS

source http://wlos.com/news/news-13-investigates/news-13-investigates-how-healthy-are-mountain-schools

Recovery efforts may begin Monday for what remains of the archives of the Museum of Chinese in America, including some priceless historical records, that are feared damaged by a five-alarm fire last week.

A fire last Friday destroyed the roof and upper floors of the historic building at 70 Mulberry Street. Nine firefighters and one civilian suffered injuries that were described as non-life-threatening. NYPD said the cause of the fire was not «criminal» and the FDNY marshal’s investigation was ongoing.

The MOCA archives were in three rooms on the second floor, where the biggest fear was damage from water and soot. It contained 85,000 pieces of historical materials ranging from ticket stubs from turn-of-the-century Chinatown theaters to family photo albums to menus documenting the historical changes in Chinatown’s restaurants. About 40,000 pieces of the archives were digitized.

«The building is severely compromised,» MOCA president Nancy Yao Maasbach told Gothamist in a phone interview.

Museum staff has not been allowed inside, but city workers might begin taking out some of the thousands of boxes of artifacts and documents, she said. The MOCA archives recovery will be overseen by the Department of Records and Department of Cultural Affairs.

«The hard work really starts when we get the materials,» Maasbach said. With water damage and fears of mold destroying the artifacts, «a lot of things are time sensitive…and we’re closing in on the window to preserve them. Fortunately it’s cold out and there’s no humidity so that’s good but I’m nervous about it.»

The city-owned building, formerly P.S. 23, is also home to the H.T. Chen & Dancers company, a senior center run by the Chinese-American Planning Council, the Chinatown Manpower job center, and the United East Athletics Association.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said Monday that the affected organizations will be assisted by city resources, including elderly clients of the CPC center who will be sent to four other senior centers.

«The City has offered to store recovered artifacts in city-owned space as needed once recovery is completed. In addition, the Department of Records and Department of Cultural Affairs are coordinating with cultural institutions and archivists to provide assistance,» de Blasio’s office said in a release Monday.

Maasbach said the cost of recovery of the archival material will be «very expensive.»

«We’re talking about thousands of boxes of things that might have soot, might have water damage. The type of sponge you use on each piece and everything (else) is costly,» she said.

Offers of help and funding have poured in, she added, and now the museum will have to decide what direction to take.

«Amazing volunteers, conservators, museums and the arts and culture world have come out to offer help,» Maasbach said. The recovery effort may rely on some donated labor because «we do want to save money—we’re a nonprofit and we don’t have that much to go around.»

The museum launched a GoFundMe drive that has raised more than $62,00 from more than 800 donors in three days to pay for recovery and rebuilding the archives.

The Chinese playwright David Henry Hwang was among those who tweeted about the urgent need to help the museum.

«The most heartening part about that is people (whose names) I recognize from 13-14 years ago, they were like former volunteers and they gave $10. And to be honest, that $10 gift and that individual is very precious,» Maasbach said. «It’s about the fact that they were encouraged and inspired to just get online and do that and give what they could.»

source https://gothamist.com/news/archive-recovery-begin-museum-chinese-america-days-after-devastating-fire

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source http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/43325/20200127/6-telling-signs-that-you-need-a-new-roof.htm

When she heard the news of a fire at the building where the Museum of Chinese in America keeps its 85,000-item archive Thursday night, the museum’s president Nancy Yao Maasbach raced over to watch firefighters battling the growing blaze.

As firehoses doused the burning building at 70 Mulberry Street throughout the night, Maasbach thought of the effects of water damage and mold to the priceless items in their collections.

«We were so tempted to just try to get in there yesterday and they thought we were mad, crazy mad,» Maasbach said in an interview Friday morning, as she stood outside the building where firefighters were still working to contain the last remnants of the five-alarm fire.

«But the curator was here, the head of collections was here. The educators were here. We were all just sort of like standing and waiting and hoping that they might be able to let us in,» she said. «But it was a big fire.»

Fire officials said the fire broke out around 8:45 p.m. Thursday in the upper floors of the five-story building, and the roof collapsed. Nine firefighters and one civilian were injured —the civilian was reportedly rescued from the roof via ladder and was hospitalized for smoke inhalation injuries. None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening.

Maasbach does not believe the fire reached the second floor where the archives are located, but her greatest fear is «definitely water damage. Then the longer we wait, mold — any mold that might build up. It’s going to be a warm weekend.»

The museum, opened 40 years ago, was originally housed in the Mulberry Street building and moved to its current location at 215 Centre Street in 2009, but retained space on the second floor for the archives. While about 40,000 pieces of the archives were digitized, many physical items are irreplaceable, Maasbach said.

According to Maasbach, the archives include «old iron heating metal components that are from hand laundries. There’s dresses — traditional Chinese dresses, cheongsams from the turn of the century. There was just an endless list of priceless family albums, postcards from Chinatown from the early 1900s. I mean, these things are not easily acquired. We have all the movie posters from the theaters that used to be in Chinatown that no longer exist, the ticket stubs from those things. And we have this signage from early restaurants and laundromats in Chinatown and these things are just priceless.»

The museum also has a large collection of «Chinese American restaurant menus, which tells the story of early Chinese entrepreneurs in this country who wanted to really cater to the Western palate to be more successful and to be more accepted,» she said. «Things like moo goo gai pan, things that I never even knew what dishes they were — those are American dishes. So if the American narrative understands that the Chinese evolved their palates to be more inclusive, that’s why we see such value in those things.»

She added that the collections were «a 40-year effort by hundreds of people and families. And it’s the only real formal collection that’s properly assessed…we’re this standout, and it’s really well done.»

The museum staff did formally conserve many items, she said. «So there are definitely very professional methods that we’ve used to house and store things…but with this amount of water, it’s really hard to protect against. I don’t know if anything survives this type of water damage.»

Of the recovery effort, she said «we have a window in which we can do this. We’ve reached out to many, many people — people at the Met, people at conservation places, recovery places, academics. So everyone’s been saying, ‘let us know what we can do,’ but I’m just really nervous. I mean that we have 85,000 items there. And there are many things that are priceless and not replaceable.»

The building itself is also a historical artifact, Maasbach pointed out. It opened in 1893 and used to house PS 23, an elementary school where generations of kids studied — including Councilmember Margaret Chin, who represents the district.

The building also houses nonprofits including the United East Athletics Association, the Chen Dance Center and Chinatown Manpower, a vocational and entrepreneurial assistance center where Maasbach’s own mother learned job skills.

«So not only are the archives, the history of Chinatown in that building, and Chinese America, but also it’s a historic city building that had an elementary school,» she said. «People talk about PS 23 all the time. I mean, 70 Mulberry is the address I would suggest that most people know who have any connection with this neighborhood. Even as a child I went there with my mom to learn her employable skills at Chinatown Manpower — they teach skills to new immigrants. It has such a deep connection with the Chinese diaspora who come to New York.»

«And it’s not about the Chinese only in this country,» Maasbach added. «This is about the American narrative. And the stories in our collections tell that narrative. And unfortunately, it’s still untold and…the museum’s made great strides with the support of everyone and their collections and things and it’s just such a step back.»

source https://gothamist.com/news/museum-chinese-america-fire-archive-damage

No new restaurant or other food facility closures were announced by the Riverside Department of Environmental Health between Jan. 17 and 24, 2020.

Non-closure inspections of note

Here are selected inspections at facilities that weren’t closed but had other significant issues.

Royal Orchid Thai, at 9791 Magnolia Ave. in Riverside, was inspected Jan. 23 and received a failing grade of 80/B with two critical violations. An employee didn’t wash hands, and when reminded by the inspector, only rinsed without removing gloves at a sink not meant for handwashing. Also, multiple utensils had been put away dirty. Among the nine lesser violations, an ice machine had black mold inside, the handwashing sink was inoperable, some eggs and produce were at unsafe temperatures, and a dozen frozen ducks were being thawed in an unsafe manner.

Caliente Mexican Bar & Grill, at 23040 Alessandro Blvd. in Moreno Valley, was inspected Jan. 23 and received a failing grade of 80/B with two critical violations. An employee didn’t wash hands after handling raw and cooked food and cleaning a sink. Also, the dishwasher wasn’t dispensing sanitizer and was impounded. Among the nine lesser violations, salsa was at an unsafe temperature at the self-service line, and raw beef was being thawed at room temperature.

Nayarit Restaurant, at 140 S. D St. in Perris, was inspected Jan. 22 and received a failing grade of 80/B with two critical violations. The inspector saw two live and one dead cockroach and some dry rodent droppings. Also, multiple containers of food were at unsafe temperatures, including some in a refrigerator that was impounded for not keeping cold. Among the 11 lesser violations, bags and boxes of food as well as plates and equipment were being stored directly on the floor, and the ceiling needed repair from past leak damage. The inspector also noted that the restaurant is undergoing a change in ownership and said a structural inspection would need to be completed. This was the second routine inspection in a row that the restaurant failed.

Cafe Aroma, at 54750 N. Circle Drive in Idyllwild, was inspected Jan. 22 in response to a complaint about roaches and lack of cleanliness. It received a failing grade of 86/B; the inspector saw no sign of roaches and there were no critical violations, but numerous cleaning issues were noted. There was mold in the ice machine, on the dish sprayer head, around the dishwasher, under a storage shelf and on the floor; the stoves, hood and surrounding items were greasy and an overflowing grease catch bin was leaking onto the floor; and multiple other areas were described as dirty, greasy, filthy or in need of repair.

Updates from past weeks

Metro Noodle, at 635 N. Main St. Suite B-1A in Corona, which failed a Jan. 15 inspection and was closed for having cockroach and rodent infestations, has not been listed as reopened.

About this list

All food facilities in the county are routinely inspected to ensure they meet health codes. A facility loses four points for each critical violation — and may have to close if the violation can’t be corrected immediately — and one or two points for minor violations. An A grade (90 to 100 points) is passing. Grades of B (80 to 89 points) and C (79 or below) are failing and typically require the proprietor to make improvements and be re-inspected.

This list is published online on Fridays. Any updates as restaurants are reopened will be included in next week’s list. For more information on inspections of these or any restaurants in Riverside County, visit restaurantgrading.rivcoeh.org. To submit a health complaint about a restaurant, go to www.rivcoeh.org/Complaint or call 888-722-4234 during business hours or 951-782-2968 after-hours.

source https://www.pe.com/2020/01/24/unwashed-hands-filthy-conditions-restaurant-inspections-in-riverside-county-jan-17-24/

source https://www.prweb.com/releases/how_attic_mold_affects_your_home_ecocomfort/prweb16850652.htm

Ann Basu

Last Saturday, water from a burst pipe in Moulton Union damaged walls, ceiling tiles and furniture in one room on the first floor of the building and also caused a leak in the dining hall located in the basement.

The majority of the damage occurred in Room 116A, a room in the offices of Career Exploration and Development (CXD). The pipe, which had frozen, split and then thawed, was located directly above the room. A wooden table and several ceiling tiles were damaged. Water trickled down the walls and through the floor of the room, causing leakage in the neighboring rooms and hallways.

Since it was the weekend, no employees of CXD were present when the leaking began. At approximately 10 a.m. Saturday morning, Facilities Management was first notified of water dripping from a light fixture in one room of the dining hall, commonly referred to as the light room. Facilities employees shortly thereafter identified and isolated the source of the leak, and dining employees evacuated the light room.

Julianna Kiley ’20 was one of the students eating in the light room when the leak began.

“I was trying to get to the gluten-free fridge [which is located in the light room] and I was like, ‘What happened? Where’s the fridge? What’s going on?’ And one of the workers came up to me and said, ‘A big pipe burst, a big, important pipe, and honestly this whole thing could come down at any time.’ That’s what I was told,” said Kiley.

Interim Director of Dining Services Ken Cardone wrote in an email to the Orient that there was no danger of ceiling tiles falling down. According to Interim Director of Facilities Operations and Management Jeff Tuttle, however, the section of the light room where water was dripping was, and remains, cordoned off with curtains and metal rods as a safety precaution.

The priority now Tuttle said, is drying out the walls and ceiling tiles affected to prevent growth of mold. Facilities called ServPro, a water damage service in Brunswick, to bring in fans and dehumidifiers to expedite the drying process.

Tuttle estimates that the section will remain blocked off until early next week, once Facilities has assessed the area for structural damage and removed any unstable parts.

“Once we remove the barriers, there will be no danger,” Tuttle said. “We’ll double check and triple check and make sure everything is secure before we allow people to pass underneath.”

But getting everything looking good as new again will have to wait for students to leave campus for a few days.

“We won’t be able to do repairs until probably March break, when the community is out of here for a couple of weeks,” said Tuttle.

Tuttle does not yet know the cost of the damage, since, he said, “it depends on what we can salvage and what we can’t.” He estimates that it could cost thousands of dollars, considering the cost of immediate mitigation of water damage, the cost of calling in external services and replacing damaged furniture and infrastructure.

Cardone wrote that, besides having to move a few tables, chairs and items normally near the affected area, dining employees have been able to work around the problem.

Upstairs, the wall between the office of Bethany Walsh, associate director of skill development and programming for CXD, and 116A was damaged. Nothing in her office was damaged, but the carpet smells like mildew, Walsh noted. Fans are currently working to dry her office, while Walsh has taken refuge in a conference room elsewhere in the CXD offices.

“That’s the nice thing about my particular job, I can kind of duck in anywhere,” said Walsh. “It might just mean a little creativity.”

Rohini Kurup contributed to this report.

source https://bowdoinorient.com/2020/01/24/burst-pipe-causes-damage-to-cxd-moulton/

People living at Aqua Vista apartments say the problems continue to pile up. Tenants told 13News Now about issues at the complex back in 2018.

source https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/residents-protest-living-conditions-at-newport-news-apartment-complex/291-2af255c0-1f5f-418b-969c-73c6457bd62c