Excavation of contaminated soil begins shortly at a Ponsonby school following a fire a year ago that spread asbestos around the neighbourhood.
The site of a Ponsonby school following a fire a year ago that spread asbestos around the neighbourhood. Photo: Supplied
The soil already had asbestos in it before the fire. But for neighbours forced to stay out of their house for weeks back then, it is just the latest instalment in what they say has been a terribly-handled public health emergency.
The Ponsonby fire last December also became a flashpoint for firefighters claiming a lack of asbestos safeguards.
Asbestos can explode into fragments at high temperatures, releasing dangerous fibres. It spread in toxic smoke east and northeast of the school.
Barrister John Walton lives across from the school. His family could not return to their home for six weeks, and asbestos decontaminators ripped out their entire garden.
A year on, from 5 January, the soil beneath the two classrooms destroyed is being dug up in order to rebuild.
A letter from the Ministry of Education's contractor to neighbours, says a licensed asbestos removal company will monitor the air throughout and for an undefined "set period" afterwards.
"Contaminants in the soil include asbestos," it said.
"All steps have been taken to ensure that there is no risk to you."
Walton said this struck him as "being a very kind of a bold statement".
"I mean, if I can put this another way, we don't really have a great deal of faith in the way in which the Ministry of Education and the school have handled this," he told RNZ.
"We have never received any notification from either of them - no apology, no offer of assistance, no explanation.
"They have just behaved as if, on the one hand, we're not their responsibility. And on the other that if they say anything, they may face liability, in which case, they'll say nothing, which strikes me as being pretty irresponsible."
Media reports around the time of the fire said some neighbours were warned, some weren't, some were evacuated for a month, others over the fence weren't.
A new OIA response to RNZ from Auckland Regional Public Health shows it remains unclear in a fire, which agency is responsible for monitoring the air and warning people of toxic smoke, and that an attempt to coordindate agencies better has so far stalled.
RNZ spoke with an Education Ministry person appointed now to liaise with neighbours about the excavation. She said she was not aware that neighbours had expressed frustration about the lack of communications from authorities a year ago.
John Walton said the latest letter smacked of more of the same.
"That's consistent with, for example, that first notification from the Regional Public Health, saying, 'Oh, you're not at risk but you should evacuate your properties'.
"We tried to garner some public health response or management of this whole thing a year ago, and basically just failed. Their approach seems to have been that this is a private property issue.
"The more general problem [is] that when we have these public health emergencies, people seem to run for cover."
A big property owner like the ministry should have a proper hazards register but it doesn't, Walton said.
Registers can be used to alert fire crews to asbestos before they get to a fire.
RNZ's questions triggered the ministry to send through two reports.
These indicate what will be dug up is low-level historic asbestos contamination already there before the fire.
As for new contamination from the fire, tests showed 11 sampling sites out of 190 within school grounds, with asbestos at excessive levels.
This was cleaned up in the six weeks after the fire.
"The site has had a full environmental clean prior to re-occupation," a January 2021 report says. This covered all "accessible" surfaces but not inaccessible ones.
The roof of the gym had to be repainted when it failed swab tests even after being washed. Footpaths were vacuumed. In some areas, soil with asbestos fibres in it was scraped up to 10cm deep and sent to a licensed landfill.
Workers got rid of 99 tonnes like this, and brought in 42,000 tonnes of hardfill. Areas with asbestos material in it from previous years were concreted over. They wouldn't work if the wind got up over 15 km/h.
"The data confirms no airborne asbestos above the trace level ... at the site boundary during the remedial works."
The neighbours lacked for such information.
John Walton said the school failed to coordinate its clean-up with the clean-up at houses, where residents relied on insurers to cover the costs.
The school principal, Nick Wilson, was approached for comment.
Firefighters recently lodged a safety notice against Fire and Emergency, spurred on by what they allege was poor asbestos decontamination at the Ponsonby fire, and other documented lapses.
FENZ in an OIA told RNZ it did a debrief after the Ponsonby fire - but it won't release details, saying that might curb firefighters from having frank debriefs in future.
Another OIA, from Auckland Regional Public Health Service, reignites the question of how the public gets a warning about fires releasing toxins, raised after the International Convention Centre fire in 2019.
FENZ has said it is not responsible under its legal mandate, though it works with public health units to keep people safe.
But Auckland public health believes it begins with FENZ: It was FENZ's job to "provide for the safety" of people in fires involving hazardous substances, the service told RNZ.
It "relies on FENZ" to give it information for assessing risks. It could do air sampling but units "do not have a remit to routinely undertake ambient air monitoring on behalf of other agencies or the community".
At Ponsonby, public health did not meet FENZ until the next day. By then the asbestos had been widely blown about.
Public health did not do any air sampling because the Education Ministry arranged it, the OIA response said.
Auckland public health said it reviewed the Ponsonby fire alongside FENZ, WorkSafe and Auckland Council, and they will set up a means to coordinate better - a "liaison protocol".
However, because of the pandemic's demands, it has not done this yet, it said.
The protocol would "spell out" which agency should take the lead, set up formal cooperation and communication processes, and provide "a mechanism for consistent information and advice" for the public.
The Education Ministry took the criticism on the chin.
"We understand neighbours faced significant disruption over the last Christmas holidays because of the building fire," Infrastructure and Digital (Te Puna Hanganga Matihiko) leader, Scott Evans, said.
"We accept that as the situation unfolded, our communications with affected neighbours was simply not good enough and this is something we will significantly improve on should another similar situation arise."
For the rebuild, the historic contamination by asbestos had been safely encapsulated, he said.
"The asbestos remediation work was carried out in line with industry standards and best practice, and at no point have students been exposed."
Individual schools held their own information about any asbestos on site, Evans said.
However, the ministry was setting up a national asbestos management working group to look at identification and management in school buildings and develop a programme to help schools and kura.