LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Officials plan to carry out a "controlled mechanical demolition" on the Applegate Lane home.
According to a LENSAlert text an Applegate Lane resident received Wednesday morning, "the EPA plans to use a mechanical approach for a controlled demolition to remediate the property at 6213 Applegate."
The city initially ordered a "controlled burn" on the home at the beginning of August after talking to emergency officials and experts. That is now not the case.
"To briefly describe this process, it involves removing debris from the home in small scoops," Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said. "[The Environmental Protection Agency] will mechanically remove the roof of the house, as well as walls, and scoop by scoop, small amounts of material will be removed from the home, placed into a large steel container -- that is partially buried in the backyard of 6213 Applegate Lane -- and the contents will be disposed of."
The mayor said the demolition process isn't expected to start before October. He said once it begins, it should take less than a month to complete, depending on final contractor schedules and weather.
Security will be onsite 24/7 until the process is complete.
"Time is on our side, so EPA will be moving slowly to limit any risk to responders, to neighbors and the entire neighborhood," Greenberg said.
According to Jody Meiman, deputy director for Louisville Metro Emergency Services, the process is rare in the United States.
"We can only find that this is a situation that's happened about eight times," Meiman said. "That's why it's taken so long, through this process, to get a reputable contractor with the [EPA] to come in and do this."
There will be water cannons, air monitors, cameras, a fire suppression plan -- that officials are working on with the Fern Creek Fire Department -- and EMS will be onsite in the event of an emergency.
"We are continuing to develop our evacuation plan that will be needed only in the event of an unexpected emergency," Greenberg added.
He noted that there won't be a demolition of the 6211 home, because officials believe its been remediated.
In late July, LMPD searched 6211 and 6213 Applegate Lane after several citizen's tips that hazardous materials, including potential explosives, may be present.
Authorities found more than 20 hazardous chemicals and several explosive substances inside the 6213 home. Officials with the EPA even found mercury within the fenced area of 6211 Applegate Lane.
"It's something that we just never thought that was going to happen," Jazmine Perez, a new mom who lives across the street from the home, said. "Sometimes I just think, when am I going to wake out of this crazy dream?"
Vickie Jackson, another neighbor, said she'll be glad when it's over.
"[I feel] confident in them doing that. The neighbors I have talked to, they didn't want a [controlled] burn," Jackson said.
Greenberg said at a previous news conference that the owner of the 6213 home, 53-year-old Marc Hibel, had been in possession of these chemicals for a long time, with some for multiple years.
According to city records, Hibel had been fined multiple times for the condition of his home, over the course of several years, by Metro Codes and Regulations. He was arrested back in July, when investigators said he admitted to making and detonating homemade explosives.
Police described his home as a hoarding situation and said he had been squatting in the home next door.
Hibel appeared in front of a judge on Sept. 5.
Thomas Rasinski, Hibel's defense attorney, said his plan was to go into business with another chemist.
"He was going to start a chemical handling business, but that man passed away and he couldn't step into that business as he intended, so he had chemicals he had no purpose for anymore and he had no means to dispose of them," he said.
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