LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The pews were packed as if it were Sunday at Highview Baptist Church.
But it was Monday night, and this was an interfaith gathering of residents who all shared the common faith that the city would do the right thing.
“We are not going to move forward with any plan, until I am satisfied that it can be done in the absolute safest possible way,” Mayor Craig Greenberg, D-Louisville, assured the crowd.
The plan has to be right, while conditions have to be optimal, to burn down 6213 Applegate Lane.
“We want a nice clear day, low humidity, obviously light winds,” Jody Meiman, Louisville Metro Emergency Services Executive Director, said.
When those optimal conditions occur depends on the weather, while a huge priority is to minimize risk with what ends up in the air, going up in smoke.
The city is still planning out how to minimize impact on the neighborhood with the controlled burn of the house, described as full of junk.
The fire would have to be so intense and so hot to incinerate the hazardous and potentially explosive chemicals housed inside, while the house would ultimately collapse on itself.
Last week, Mayor Greenberg said the hoarding there is so bad that maneuvering around the junk to physically remove the chemicals would be too dangerous and too difficult, so a controlled burn was the only option.
However, at the meeting, the words “if and when” were used for the first time.
WHAS11 News discovered that the city had its first direct conversation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to discuss alternatives to setting the house on fire.
“An alternative is a contractor coming in and actually methodically taking things out one by one in the house, if a contractor will do that,” Meiman said.
Meiman acknowledged that effort would take longer than a controlled burn, keeping residents away from their homes possibly for days instead of possibly hours.
Meanwhile, getting the EPA onsite to assess the situation has not yet been determined.
Mayor Greenberg told the gathering the controlled burn is still the likely option.
“Based on the other folks that we have talked to that are experienced in this area, this is the path,” he said. “Again, we continue to work parallel paths, with the EPA right now.”
If the city moves forward with fire, it appears that lighting the match won’t happen anytime soon.
“We don’t have a target date, two weeks, three weeks, whatever that is,” Meiman said.
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