Parks, Education, Recreation & Health Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Sustainability and Beautification Committee hearing on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026 at 5 p.m. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Comibes? Here. Jones? Here. Driscoll? Here. Kramer? Here. McPherson? Here. Five present. Also present, Gattis and Sorrento.

Thank you so much. Thanks everybody for being here. And thanks to everybody that's here from the administration as well as the public. We really are looking forward to hearing from all of you and what has been happening. So a few housekeeping moments before we really get started. There is a sign-up sheet that is on the podium. It will move its way over to the side table over here if you intend to speak and make public comments. please sign up on that sheet so we can get to everybody in order. We generally keep about a three minute per person rule, so we can make sure we hear from everybody. I do have some discretion on that, so we will see how that goes. And we will first hear from the administration once we get rolling here, and then council will be able to ask questions that they would like to ask, and then we will open it to public comment. Here we go. I first want to begin by recognizing the people who responded to this emergency. Our firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel, dispatchers, and other first responders, including our teams at the environmental services who were on site and providing air quality testing before the EPA even arrived. All of these responders put themselves in harm's way to protect our residents and save lives. I don't want to speak for all counsel, but I would imagine all deeply grateful for their courage, professionalism, and commitment. I also want to thank the governmental agencies that responded, those responsible for emergency management, public health, environmental monitoring, and more. Their coordinated efforts were essential to protecting residents during the immediate crisis and in its aftermath. But gratitude for the response cannot substitute for accountability about what happened, and I believe that we need answers. Brent Industries is operating in a community where residents have a reasonable expectation that industrial facilities will operate safely and responsibly. When there is a major explosion and fire, the public deserves to know what happened, what failed, whether all applicable safety requirements were being followed, and whether warning signs existed before this incident even occurred. There are also serious questions about the company's obligations to the community. It's my understanding that Brett Industries is currently $861,000 in arrears on its water bill and nearly $20,000 in property taxes. That is an extraordinary amount of money and it raises legitimate questions about the company's financial conditions, its obligations to the city, and whether there are broader compliance or oversight issues that this committee needs to understand. The public should not be left wondering whether financial difficulties, operational decisions, maintenance, compliance, or other factors played any role in the conditions at this facility. And while we investigate those questions, we cannot lose sight of the people who live nearby. I'm particularly concerned by residents who continue to tell us that they're experiencing symptoms through following the fire. Those residents deserve more than assurances. They deserve answers, access to appropriate health resources, and transparent information. We need to know what was released during the explosion and fire. We need to know what environmental testing has found. And we need to know what monitoring was conducted. And I'm looking forward to hearing all of that today. And I think it will beg the question whether additional testing is necessary. But I think that everybody will have a better understanding of what all has been done after today's presentation. The people living in these neighborhoods should not have to become their own investigators to determine whether they're safe. This hearing should therefore be about facts, transparency, and accountability. If Brent Industries failed to meet its responsibilities, we need to know. If regulations were not followed, we need to know. If inspections permitting enforcement or communication broke down, we need to know these things. Our obligation is not simply to respond when something goes wrong. Our obligation is to do everything within our authority to prevent these incidents, to identify risks before they become emergencies, and to make sure that companies operating in our community meet their responsibilities to the public. So today I anticipate hearing difficult questions, not because this committee wants to prejudge the outcome of any investigation, but because the people we represent deserve real answers. So without that, or with that, I will kick it over to the administration. So I understand we have Deputy Mayor Arnold with us.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of Council, I'm Abby Arnold, Deputy Mayor. I'm joined today by Deputy Chief Pasadny of Toledo Fire and Rescue and Abid Saman, Commissioner of Environmental Services. On August 18th, we suffered a tragedy when a second alarm fire claimed the lives of two members of our community. On behalf of Mayor Capsicavage and the City of Toledo, we offer our sincere condolences to the families, friends, and coworkers of the victims. Deputy Chief Pasadny served as Incident Commander during the response, and Environmental Services was the first environmental agency on scene, working alongside Toledo Fire and Rescue to help ensure the health and safety of the surrounding neighborhood. This was a significant and complex response involving six fire and rescue bureaus, more than 100 Toledo firefighters, employees representing six city departments, and 15 local, state, and federal agencies and partner organizations. That coordinated response has continued beyond the immediate emergency as work at the site has progressed. We also recognize that residents who live near the site have questions and concerns about the potential impact of this incident on their neighborhood, particularly as it relates to air and water quality. Those concerns are understandable and residents deserve clear information about what has been done, what the testing has shown, and what we will continue to be monitoring going forward. That is why today's conversation is important. We're here to provide council and the public with an overview of the response. Deputy Chief Posadny will walk through Toledo Fire and Rescue's response to the fire and Commissioner Simon will discuss the environmental response, including the city's coordination with our state and federal partners, the environmental testing and monitoring that has occurred, and the ongoing work at the site. Unfortunately, representatives from the US and Ohio EPA were unable to join us today. However, Commissioner Simon will be able to speak to their role in the response and the continued environmental monitoring and oversight moving forward. I want to thank the city employees and our local, state, and federal partners who responded to an extraordinarily difficult incident and who continue to be engaged in the work that has followed. Most importantly, we want the residents who have questions about this incident to have access to the facts and an understanding of the work that has been and continues to be done to protect their health and safety. We appreciate the opportunity to provide that information today and answer Council's questions. With that, I will turn it over to Deputy Chief Pisadny.

Good afternoon. My name is Mike Pisadny. I am the Deputy Chief of Operations and Special Operations for the City of Toledo Fire Department. Our alarm came in around 4.50 in the morning. They were sent to Brent Industries on a possible explosion. They were getting multiple calls on this. I was alerted at home, so I immediately got in and left work early before they even dispatched us. I could see by the text what was coming in that it was something significant. While en route, I started going en route to dispatch, and I was listening to the channel, the incident commander. Battalion 2, Chief Damon Williams was first on scene. He was given a size up of what he had in front of him. Off of the size up, I started contacting our dispatch to get ahold of Toledo Environmental, Ohio EPA, because I knew we had more than what we could handle. We had active rescues going in place. We had 12 people that were missing. And that's what they were focusing on. At first, they originally, because of the devastation, you have a 42,000 square foot building that was heavily damaged from the explosions, multiple explosions. The concerns were more explosions. We had about 40,000 gallons of solvent on the backside in the tanks, so that was one of the concerns. So they went to a defensive operation while they were still setting up. They were having water issues. Also, when I was en route, I called dispatch, started getting on the water atlas with the explosions. Most of the time, you'll have infrastructure damage. And also, the building was sprinklered. So when the building is heavily damaged, they were losing water. So we were able to tell them, tell the members, shut down the post-indicator valves, shut down that, increase the water pressure. It did help. So going, I arrived on the scene, started establishing safety zones. Then we were starting, saw some of the people that came out of it, started trying to get a head count, kept asking for a roster. To this day, I still do not have a roster of the members that were in the building. So we're trying to piece together how many people are still in there. So we went from 12 down to four, down to three, two, and then our search efforts we had different descriptions of missing people and our missing workers so our numbers are starting to climb back up because the descriptions weren't matching so we had a lot of stuff going on at the time i immediately called for the nrc national response center once you contact that they'll hit all the federal agencies because we were task saturated we were focused on rescue which at the time we still had 12 people we did not confirm until we still haven't confirmed so we got video evidence that we could start going through and doing head counts on if everybody was accounted for but that took hours into it to get everything out because we had to pull the stuff out of the building building so it's a 42 000 was collapsed down uh had heavy fire conditions but uh we had our hazmat teams there i had to use them and their and our technical rescue team uh to start searching these buildings um it was we would call it pancakes it would completely drop down but our members are trained so they have searchable voids even though we had heavy fire conditions i switched it from a defensive to an offensive and we started doing rescue searches they were able to take saws and we call it tunneling dig through the pile and they went as far as they could based on our last known information of several people we went on a testimony of people that were on the scene and we started focusing in those areas And then there was one that was a discrepancy where they said there was someone further into the building. So we started getting excavators coming in case we had to dig in further. And our team was able to search to where they encountered heavy fire. And then they had to start making their way back. During the search process, they were able to locate two deceased employees through the searches. And then we went from a rescue to a recovery. because at that time the building was completely engulfed in flames and then we could not handle it we were able to search some of the front offices to make sure there was no one in there until we still got an official head count when i got hold of the us epa the first thing they contacted me i was asking do we need a shelter in place or start setting plume modeling and also do we need to evacuate they did their eval they were saying no not at this time so that's where we went from there so the environmental agencies were handling the air monitoring that's what i requested we could not handle it we had too many other things going on so not sit there and wait we started getting the agencies coming here quickly um and that that's pretty much uh it for us as my our technical rescue teams as they they put it out there on the line very good no one else would go in the building but they did

Okay, I think I'll have Abbott-Simon talk through the environmental response.

Good afternoon. Really to say that this tragedy is not even begins to describe what happened, and especially the loss of life. So our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones, and that really brings it more real. to how important our role is, not just as a city, but also as Environmental Services. The Division of Environmental Services was notified about 525.30 in the morning. By 645, we had the responder on the scene that reported to Incident Command that becomes the unified command for the incident. And upon our arrival, We estimated the facility was roughly about 85% destroyed from the initial explosion. TFRD was fighting a massive fire and searching for employees. What our role was, we started right away, surveyed the area, and began conducting air monitoring right when we arrived at the scene. Notified National Response Center, which has alerted the U.S. EPA and OEPA of the incident, but also Environmental Services. We contacted our local representatives of U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA to make sure that they are there to request, so we know them. We did not want to take any chances. We wanted to make sure we talked to someone. The National Response Center, which referred to as NRC, is the primary federal point of contact for reporting all oil spills, chemical releases, rheological discharges, and biological contamination incidents within the United States. They are operated by the US Coast Guard. While they do not deploy responders, their role is to notify and do the emergency dispatch of all correct federal, state, and local agencies. I thought that is important to note as well. So when we got there by nine o'clock, We have deployed two more teams to perform air monitoring around the area and the neighborhood with the surrounding neighborhood. And after starting this, we contacted Lucas County Local Emergency Planning Committee, which I'm sure you've heard of it, referred to as LEPC. And their role is they are the designated local county board responsible for managing chemical inventory in the surrounding Toledo area and in the Lucas County, and collect Tier 2 hazard reports. And what they do, they maintain a comprehensive hazardous inventory of all facilities that are supposed to report to them. And also they help in modeling based on the known materials that are there where our efforts need to be. And that was about a mile around Brent Industries. And that's where we deployed our teams to make sure that they get the readings, air monitoring in that area. We did not have any readings on the devices that we have on the meters. And it's good to note here that these meters that we use give a broad spectrum of what could be in the air. We refer to them as CGMs or common, and they are designed to tell the person carrying the meter if there is an immediate danger where they are at and in the surrounding area. That's why we use them when we survey the area and visit the neighborhood. The only reading we got that morning was 5.3 ppm, parts per million of VOCs directly next to the fence line of the property, but when our staff moved away from the fence line to South Avenue, to the street, the entrance, it was zero. And those were also the readings of zero throughout the neighborhood and the locations that we visited. At approximately 10 a.m., US EPA arrived on the scene, and by 10.30, they began roving air monitoring. But even though they had their own air monitoring, our staff continued to monitor the air in the neighborhood within that mile radius. And specifically, we visited each and every what's decided or what's recommended by LEPC as sensitive areas or sensitive locations. It could be a school, it could be a daycare, it could be a nursing home. they identify these so we made sure that we visited each and every location so even though us epa contractor began monitoring we continued to monitor throughout the neighborhood and to this day and for the foreseeable future we are continuing as environmental services to monitor the air daily and so far we have No readings indicating a threat to health based on the equipment that we have. Based on the, when I go back to the incident, based on the available information at that time, US EPA on the scene coordinator mobilized their contractors to conduct 24 hour community air monitoring in the affected neighborhoods. The contractor monitored for VOCs, volatile organic compounds, PM10 in micrometers and PM2.5. These are the size of the particles, and they did not have any alarming readings. There were no readings that indicate any threat from these elements. According to the data they collected, the US EPA indicated that they detected no readings of a concern to the public. Also, the US EPA contacted the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, referred to as ATSDR, which is a federal public health agency in the United States that works to protect people from harmful exposure of hazardous substances of plume modeling. So they do the plume modeling. According to that agency, and their modeling, assuming the worst case scenario of 40,000 gallons of kerosene, because we did not know at that point what was in those tanks but also take the worst case scenario according to US EPA, the SDDR considered worst case scenario would be 40,000 gallon of kerosene. The flu modeling showed that the hazard was isolated to the area immediately surrounding the four tanks located at the property. That's the report we got back from the SDDR and US EPA. As I mentioned, though, TES continued, Environmental Service continued to monitor and remain on the scene in a supportive role in taking the lead in making sure that we do our due diligence in collecting data that would help us give some advice or act in a certain way. Turning now to the water quality, The Hudson ditch is immediately to the north of the property and flows as tributary into the Ottawa River. During the height of the fire, solvent and oil mixed with firefighting runoff began flowing into the ditch. To protect our waterways, contaminant booms were placed. Environmental services staff identified the ditch behind the facility, identified the locations where the booms need to be put, should be placed, and confirmed their proper deployment. US EPA contractor are the ones that deployed the containment booms at the three strategic locations that we determined, and we mentioned that to US EPA. And that was right where the ditch passes under the railroad. I don't know if you're familiar with the area. There is a railroad service road. That's what we installed it northeast of the facility, one at the dead end of Westwood Avenue and near Scott Park Drive. Now, there are two types of booms deployed. Absorbent booms that absorb, obviously from the name, and capture any material. And there are hard booms, which both were deployed, and hard booms prevent the passing through of the material. So any product or origin visible would be absorbed or contained for future collection. keeping in mind that at that point we were functioning under emergency response and containing what we are dealing with. Additionally, once the U.S. EPA contractor received approval to access the site from ATF and TFRD and Unified Command, an earthen berm to contain the fire water runoff was placed directly behind the building as a temporary measure to prevent fire water runoff from continuing to enter into the Hudson Ditch. We did perform water quality sampling in Hudson Ditch downstream from the location at the first boom location. We sampled for cyanide, total petroleum, hydrocarbons, oil and grease. metals, total toxic organics, BTX, which we refer to as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. pH was taken and pH was neutral. The only thing we detected was mercury that was detected in the sample, which is in most cases is normal to a fire that's being extinguished because it could be from fluorescent light bulbs, it could be from other things within the facility. It's also important to note that this area is an industrial, historical industrial area. so we do not have a baseline for that area. Therefore, it's likely that soil sampling, we would expect possibly finding things, metals maybe in there. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned that because of the location of the area. The current status, the multi-agency response has transitioned now from an emergency response to containment and mitigation and to long-term remediation of the area. US EPA formally transitioned the lead role to Ohio EPA. And that is the Ohio EPA Northwest District Office, and that happened on August 28th. So Ohio EPA will continue to oversee the long-term soil waste and structural cleanup of the site. So again, OEPA is now overseeing the work done by the cleanup contractor along with our support. We make sure that when work is taking place that we visit the site regularly to make sure that we are informed and we are in a supportive role to the cleanup efforts. The cleanup contractor has been performing air monitoring three times a day so far. It's my understanding, before I came here, that might stop today by the contractor, but that would not stop us as Environmental Services from continuing to do air monitoring daily. And also the checking on the booms to make sure they need to be replaced, removed, and the status of the water in the Hudson Beach. The earthen berms and trenches remain in place. And last we saw, they're still in good condition. Product removal and tank purging are actively underway, that tanks are being replaced, I'm sorry, cleaned and emptied for removal. And that effort is also taking place today. My understanding, the last report before I came here, that two of them have been cleaned out before, and two, they are in the process of cleaning and emptying. And so far, they recovered 200 gallons from those tanks. Also, additional earthen berm has been placed around the tanks to ensure that while they're removing them, nothing gets into the ditch as well. In closing, the Division of Environmental Services continues, and I want to emphasize that, continues daily air monitoring reading at the boom locations. And so far, all of our readings have been no readings. We have not recorded anything. We will continue to check that. We're doing it not just during work days. We do that on weekends as well. And also, we have in place where if we get a rain event, we will send a responder, even if it is at night after hours. to make sure that they check the booms and the air readings. We will continue to do this. Toledo Environmental Services continues to set our efforts in air readings, boom monitoring, including the weekends. And that's where we're at at this point.

That concludes our presentation, so happy to take any questions.

Thank you so much.

May I mention something? I do apologize. Do you mind, Chair? I just want to mention that Brent Industries, I just want to make sure it goes in the record. Because of their operation, we do visit them for air to make sure that they are in compliance with the air division and air pollution control regulations. And that last visit was done on August 7th, and we find no violation. They also, because of their operation, they are part of our pretreatment program, where basically they cannot put anything in our sewer system without testing it, and sometimes we go out and test it so they have to send their records to us and we do a yearly visit unfortunately this year they were scheduled for one but now we can't but the last one we did was july 24 2025 and we did not notice any violations I thought that's important for the record.

Thank you. And you mentioned that there's a Tier 2 report as well, and they were compliant with turning in their Tier 2 report and listed all of the chemicals that they had on site?

That's what we got back from LEPC when they did that report. I don't really know because I didn't look at the entire report. What we were interested in is the list of the chemicals because we had to provide that for unified command for US EPA and for us to make sure to know what we're dealing with. But basically, the Tier 2, what it indicated, and let me see if I can. Brent Industries listed two chemicals in their Tier 2 report, and that is sulfuric acid, which is contained in forklift batteries, and starter solvent. Starter solvent is a petroleum-derived Okay, try this again. Petroleum-derived clear liquid similar to mineral spirits that is commonly used in paint thinners, decreasers, and cleaning operations. Okay, thank you for that.

Just also to clarify, we still don't have a full list of roster of the people that may have been present from Brett Industries.

I do not, and they haven't provided. I've seen the owner several times, and he said he was going to get it to us, gave me my email, and I still haven't received it.

So we can't account for all the people that may have been inside?

At this point, not 100%. I mean, we haven't had any calls coming in for missing loved ones, but unfortunately, they have not provided the information.

Thank you. It's very concerning that they haven't provided that information. Okay, we will begin with Council Member Gattis.

Thank you, and thank you for your presentation. Deputy Chief, thank you for your staff that came and were able to help. I can only imagine what that was like. I heard from many of the neighbors what it was like, but I couldn't imagine what our fire staff had seen and experienced, and they're heroes for going in and helping. And thank you for the environmental services. As a district council, I see a very different perspective from you guys. And I think that I appreciate everything you've done to step in. And this has been a great report. But unfortunately, this is the most information I've gotten. And that's really alarming to me when I have people calling and reaching out and I'm trying to get answers. I think that there was a communication breakdown. I think you guys have all the answers, but the residents don't realize this. And I've been out five times now since the accident, and the residents just don't have all the answers. They've gotten cards from the EPA saying, call if you have any questions. but i really think that it's our duty as a city and especially with the ease of social media to put out a little report every day like this is i mean this was so helpful um that we are in the We went from emergency to the contamination and mitigation. Next step is remediation. That would be so helpful so that people know what to do. Last night they were cleaning and there was smells and there was smoke and people, that stuff scares them because they don't all have the same answers there are so many amazing people in the community that have formed phone trees and i have i mean we've walked and flyered people like you have people that are willing to stop up and support you but you guys have to build that engine for us to support you um i Fear can take over, right? And when you're awoken so early in the morning by two explosions back to back, people have told me they ran out of their house, the sky is orange. Like, that's terrifying. And then, you know, there's an influx of people fighting the fire, being there. The police were great protecting things. The EPA was out there, but then it stopped. But there's still questions. And I really think it's our job as a city to step up and make sure that you know they know that that we're testing once a day seven days a week and after every rain event that the the booms in the ditch are doing this and you're going to see this like i just as an educator it's so important for us to say this is what we've learned this is where we are this is what we've learned this is what you're going to see those three things what's happened what's currently happening and what is happening in the future that means so much to people and if you can get that out to me to social media there are so many people and they're in the audience and i see them they will help us get that message out into the neighborhood but to have these horrible incidents happen and i know they don't happen often um that has to be part of our plan that has to be part of our plan moving forward regardless of if it's sulfur burning in east toledo which happened on the same day thank god it didn't get into the neighborhoods or an explosion in brent industries there needs to be a communication plan and it would really be nice for the districts that are either touching it or or in it for us to get the same reports daily because i am more than willing to go above and beyond to get that information out for you but i need to have that information first so with that i really appreciate your report but i will yield my time for other council members thank you

Thanks so much. And I feel like perhaps a comment about what the ongoing communications from this point forward will look like and what the residents can expect from the city.

Yes, thank you. I'll take that. I think we are exploring sort of think what we can promise going forward to have that more regular update communication I can promise that I think we're we are trying to ask that the cleanup contractor be responsible in some way for that communication we think that Brent industries should be responsible in some way for that I don't know that we're gonna be successful in that just yet but but we can commit to if they are not able to do it or can't come through on that we can commit to that

Thank you. In light of their current commitments to us, I think they've shown that they might not be the most communicative, reliable. Thank you. So I think it's important that we do. I do know the EPA has created a website with updates that are going forward, and I wonder if there's a component where we can provide communication updates through there or something similar.

Yes, and we have the link to that that we can share, I believe, from the conversation we had yesterday.

Awesome. Next, we have Council Member Cramer.

Thank you so much, Chair. And thank you so much for this presentation. I really appreciate it. And for all you did that day, I can't imagine going into a burning building and i always appreciate our men and women who who do that um i did want to ask about brent industries have they been cooperative at all i know we've kind of talked about they haven't been the best neighbor um have they cooperated in the investigation are they cooperating with the cleanup how's that working yeah i can speak about the cleanup

They have been very cooperative. Their contractor has been on point. They're doing a really good job. They give us daily updates of what they do in addition to us being there observing and especially when Ohio EPA is there because they are responsible for the site and the cleanup. But as far as we can tell at this point, they hired a good company to do the cleanup. and they are cooperating. I just can't speak on that.

Okay, thank you. Also, I've seen a list of the chemicals that were in the building. Do we have a cause, a definitive cause? If we don't, when will we have that?

Good afternoon, members of council and the public. Assistant Chief John Kaminski, after checking in with the arson investigative team today, they have told me that working in conjunction with the ATF in this investigation, that they continue to go through what they described as copious volumes of evidence. that they are sifting through still. That includes video, electronic, and, of course, interviews. There is no timeline when they're going to have the final results on the investigation. Obviously, I think it would serve us all for that investigation to be thorough and correct. It has not been told to me that Brent Industries has been uncooperative with that investigation. But we do not have a timeline when they'll have a definitive answer as to the cause.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes.

Appreciate it. That's all I have. Thank you.

Absolutely. Councilman Sorrento.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I, too, want to express my deep appreciation to our first responders, including all of our city employees that responded, and the state and federal people, because it was truly a tragedy that happened. And obviously, we're very touched by the loss of life and any injuries that may have occurred. Very tragic. My question is, was the call made about 4.45 in the morning, or was that before, to the fire? 4.50, okay. And then, Deputy Chief, do you have any idea what time the two deceased persons were discovered? Several hours later. Several hours later, okay. All right. And I guess I'm just wondering if a contractor commissioner has been hired and is working that, aren't they going to interfere with the investigation in terms of being able to look at various materials at the site there if they're cleaning up everything? The investigation is ongoing, but I mean, we also have a contractor that's there cleaning up the site. So I guess I'm wondering if there's gonna be a very difficult to get further evidence if it's missing.

I don't know, can FIRE speak to, or maybe Assistant Chief Kaminski, to what our requirements are in the investigation?

Yep, I guess, good evening, as I was incorrect earlier, I said good afternoon. Good evening, again, John Kaminski, Assistant Chief. From where we are with the investigation is they completed their on-site investigation, sir, is that they believe that both RFIU and the ATF have completed their on-site investigation and collected every evidence that they need for their investigation. Okay. So they turned it over to the property owner. And when they do that, that means they have gathered everything that they think to make the determination, if that answers your question.

All right. You understand my concern, I thought. Of course. Private contractors are cleaning up, and we still have evidence there.

If there was any reason that they would still think that they needed to gather things, we would not have turned it back over to the property owner. We'd still be on site, sir.

Okay, and OSHA also has been involved, am I correct?

That is to my understanding.

Okay, thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Absolutely. Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you. Thank you for the work that you have done thus far in this tragedy. Um, thank you to lead a fire and police and everyone that has worked so diligently in this. My concern too, um, along with council member Gaddis is the, uh, dissemination of information to the citizens. that has to be our concern because we serve we serve the citizens of toledo and in speaking with the few that i spoke with and at our press conference is the not knowing and living in that area and then it was right there close to school starting and all of that and i i always say one of our weakest links is communicating to the citizens of Toledo what's really going on. And when fear is involved, it doubles because they don't know They're concerned on whether or not they should continue living there, their health issues, their children's safety. There were some that had swimming pools in their yards. All of this could have been, I think, a little easier to deal with had administration been forthcoming with conversations. to that community to say Ohio EPA is doing this. We have done this. We are continuing to do this. Just what you just told us, every step of the way after that explosion would have made the lives of those people that are living in that community a whole lot easier. When we went to, we had the press conference, no we didn't have answers but we were there saying we support you and we want to get the answers what are the questions and we're here for you and that's the missing piece when it comes to connecting the dots with the administration that's that's my biggest problem and and that's a concern for the citizens because we should know so that we can share it with them or administration could have went out and talked to the citizens several times or we could have had a community meeting over in that area at borough school to say This is where we are, this is what's happened, this is what we're doing. We wanna make sure that you are safe, we are concerned, and we're gonna keep you abreast. We've got to do better. And this is late in the game, far as I'm concerned. I appreciate you having the meeting, Councilman Kovacs. This is late in the game for our citizens. Because they've been dealing with this every single day since that explosion. Wondering, do I stay? Do I leave? How are my children doing? The kids over there at Burroughs School. Is the air safe? When we were at the press conference, a constituent said they were doing something with the water. Do y'all know what they were doing? Is the water safe? See, these are answers that we should have been able to give them because administration should have given it to us and we should have been communicating with our citizens. We had two employees to lose their life and we're not talking about this to our citizens. Are we keeping it on the down low? No. When we have a tragedy in our city, everybody is affected by it. Not just those in that neighborhood, but every citizen in the city of Toledo. Because it could happen in another place. What are we doing to be proactive? What is the game plan? And we need to tell our citizens. We've got to do better. I'm done. Thank you so very much. Fire Department, thank you for your report. Thank you for what you do for us each and every day. And thank you for coming and sharing with us on today. I want you to know I do appreciate that. I really do. But I'm just feeling it for my constituents because we're just now having a conversation about an explosion that has happened, what, two weeks ago? Three weeks ago? And we're just having a conversation about it to let the citizens of Toledo know what we're doing. That's unacceptable.

Mr. Chair, may I respond?

Sure.

Thank you, Councilwoman. I hear what you're saying. I think that the ongoing communication needs to be better. We did communicate pretty extensively in the beginning. So I agree that the ongoing communication needs to be better and we will fix that. But I just want to make certain it's clear, like we did do a lot of communication in the early aftermath of the incident. So I just wanted to mention that. We'll do better going forward.

Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Jones.

Thank you, Chair. First, just echoing the remarks from my colleagues as far as just the hard work, the response, just taking care of this situation, however it had happened, because also we have to think about there were other incidences, like the OmniSource fire, the tanker on the east side. So it was a lot of stuff going on. at that time, which prompts my question as far as our disaster response when it comes to residents who are dealing with the after effects. So considering what the Environmental Services has done as far as air monitoring, water monitoring, is there a system in place to where residents can call and report in any health concerns I'm actually we should probably look into the health department you know just to see how their response or how they would fit in this because symptoms may be immediate immediate but later on developing especially as things are being cleaned up they could arise again so is there some sort of call-in number or reporting tracking that we're doing for residents around these disaster areas particularly since we're talking about brent industries what are we doing with those residents there uh thank you i would say you know we always have engaged toledo to take in information i don't know that we necessarily have a formal um

for something like this. I would love for either assistant chief or deputy chief to address sort of our disaster planning and the efforts that we go through to be prepared for these types of situations. I think that was kind of in the question too.

So these are probably a once in a career type incident. one thing that we we do as a department along with a lot of the uh agencies that were actually involved in this scene we do tabletop exercises we'll do full-scale exercises and we get prepared so they always tell you you got to prepare for the for eight hours on your own we were able to actually get a lot of the stuff done within four hours half of that and still maintain and still provide for the citizens along with having a hundred firefighters and backfilling with other departments and then on top of that we also had an additional hazmat scene over on the east side so we had two hazmat scenes going at one time it shows the might of the routine but it also shows that our resources are stretched but we do have other access to our other agencies that we can call in that we have mutual aid agreements with that's if we need to pull into those we can we're running short on members they were uh let alone they had that fire they had the hazmat run there was a fire on palmer uh and then there was another fire at uh saint anthony's the same day and those are a lot of the same crews so they put it out there that day uh they worked extremely hard all all the men and women so that going so that's why we emphasize the uh attending these exercises all these all these parties come together it's a practice and then it was a real world so a lot of us had seen we're familiar faces as we were saying earlier i'm already calling on the phone i'm calling ohio epa us epa on the phone because we have that personal contact telling them exactly what we need to help us out because our resources are stretched. There's no way we can possibly do the air monitoring, let alone fight the fire, and most importantly, locate missing civilians. That's what we do preparation-wise, and we'll continue to practice and stay involved in those community events.

So on the day that this happened, when it came to those who may have been affected by the smoke chemicals and things of that nature, do you keep a list of those who were going to the hospitals if there were hospitalizations or the surrounding residences around that property? Do we have contact information? Because basically what I'm trying to say is when disasters like this happen, and there's chemicals, contamination, symptoms don't show up immediate. So further down the line, we may have some issues with asthma, may have some issues with just other health issues. So is there a way for people to reach out to either the city, the health department, fire department, environmental services, when it comes to their health, just the tracking aspect of it, because we want to make sure that if somebody does get sick because of this, I don't know if there is some legalities to it or anything of that nature, but this is something that that happens. It's just we just don't see it immediately, but probably down the line. So kind of like how we did during the pandemic contact tracing. So in the same essence, do we have that for disasters such as this?

For Toledo Fire, we do our own exposure form for our members that we keep track of who's involved, to what degree, what they call personal protective equipment they were wearing. Our biggest thing was to stay out of any of the water because we weren't 100% sure exactly, even though we had the tier twos, what chemicals are in there. Those are reporting chemicals. They could have other chemicals in there that are non-reportable. That's why they're doing different sampling to find other things out. It's just like over road trucks, they'll have a sheet that will tell you exactly what chemicals they have. But they can have a bunch of them in a smaller quantity that will make something pretty dangerous. So that's why we always try and get all the data that we can from the owners and the truck drivers. So like on Brent, they had their own safety plan along we had our Tier 2s, they were not matching. So then we had, that's why I had all the environmental agencies, they could hand off and handle that portion of it until they could figure out exactly what it was, and the Tier 2 was correct. It was just an old manual that didn't have the updates. But the Tier 2 that came from the LAPC was correct. And I believe US EPA is not here, but they said there was a help. Somebody could reach out for help, couldn't they? I couldn't remember. But they have a link right now, don't they? That people can go onto their website and report their cases.

So residents are to go to the EPA website to report?

It was the U.S. EPA, so it went Toledo Environmental, Ohio, the U.S. EPA. US EPA was running it and handed it back down. Ohio has it right now. So Ohio EPA is kind of the lead along with Toledo Environmental that will keep monitoring and handling and watching the cleanup.

We can confirm that to make certain that that's clear how that would happen.

Okay, because I think that's what's missing, because I'm recalling what you said, it's no formalized process, so people can't call in, per se, and describe their symptoms or anything like that. So I think that it's definitely important to... as far as the city side is concerned, to really understand that we need kind of like a formalized process. I know the fire department has it, I'm pretty sure police has it, environmental services, you already have that, but as far as us, as the city, we need to have some sort of disaster planning checklist, something like that. Because it was, like I said, it was an unusual time. There was a lot of stuff happening environmentally And I wouldn't say that it won't happen again, but at least we can be proactive when it comes to things like that, because, again, it was within a neighborhood. And what you know, just what Councilwoman McPherson was saying, that is contaminated, especially with the air. I know that you had the measurements, but things can travel we just had rain we had wind and you know it the stuff can happen later on so i think that we have to have some sort of system or process to where residents can call in to talk about or just describe their symptoms and then they can you know have whatever resources are available or references to certain hospitals because this will have to go into their medical record as a way to kind of document on our side as well as document just their history when it comes to their interaction with Brent Industries at this point, because this was pretty big. And considering the nature of the business, this is something that we have to kind of get ahead of, because I don't even know how many of these types of businesses we have in the city. that will be something that we need to look into and probably just similar industries because again, we have aging infrastructure. I'm not sure how the maintenance is. I know environmental services are very good with keeping up and checking, just making sure they are in compliance. But as far as just, our sort of due diligence that should be set up so i really really want to see how the health department can play in all of this um just as some like i said some sort of tracing just to ensure that health around that those areas aren't getting worse per se well we can we'll follow up with council on that particular item after we have a couple other conversations thank you that was my question thank you chair of course councilmember gattis

Thank you. And I just want to thank Councilwoman Dr. Jones for that. And I know I've said this on the record, but because of the explosion, there were pieces of the plant in people's yards. There was a layer of soot covering everything. When I spoke to residents, they complained about asthma attacks, respiratory issues, burning sinuses. headaches, swollen eyes, and you could taste the chemicals in the air. I was out there, it left a sweet, taste in your mouth, so while it might be safe, there was definitely some kind of residue, and I appreciate Dr. Jones' focus on the health department. By way of referral, can I see the, can we get sent the disaster planning that you guys do, and then any and all communication records around this disaster to the community? And then a list of all the chemicals, if we have that, that would be really helpful for me. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair.

I see no further questions from council members, so I'm gonna open it to public comment. I only have four signed up so far. There is still a sheet out if you are interested and would like to address the committee, you may, please sign up. But we will start with Chris Ramsdale. If you could just say your name and your address for the record.

Sure. Chris Ramsdell, 516 Shea Street, obviously Toledo. And I just want to add my name to the list of the condolences of the two people that perished. I think about them every night before I go to bed. It haunts me. I've not seen any pictures of Mr. Garcia Perez, but that picture of Miss Mary Allen is... I don't think I'll ever forget it. I cannot imagine any worse way to pass away. So I want to put that out there. And I think also something needs to be said about the first responders. They don't even question it. They just went and it could have been a heck of a lot worse had they not. I shouldn't say due diligence, but what they did. As a resident, I'm forever grateful to all of you for doing that. I guess one thing I would say is Brett Industries does not sound like, based on their past histrionics, they're being 100% transparent. If they're not paying their taxes, their water bill, how can we rely on them to keep records of the chemicals that they have on site? I think there was two chemicals. I mean, I've got... at least three or four in my laundry area in the basement and they only had two and they're processing toxic laundry, I find that hard to believe. Also feel that the owner should be out in present. He should be facing all of us, the community. So I will tell you the other thing too is I don't think it's a coincidence that folks in the area are getting sick. I'm as healthy as can be. I'm very fortunate for excellent genes and I'll tell you I have not been feeling well SINCE TWO WEEKS AGO. THAT WEDNESDAY IS WHEN I STARTED HAVING SYMPTOMS, AND I DON'T THINK IT'S A COINCIDENCE. NOW, WHILE MY SYMPTOMS ARE MINOR AND I CAN PROCEED FORWARD WITH MY DAY-TO-DAY ACTIVITIES, IT'S A NUISANCE. I KNOW OF ONE FAMILY THAT HAD TO LEAVE THEIR HOUSE LAST NIGHT BECAUSE THE FIRE REIGNITED. THEY CAN'T STAY THERE. MY COUSINS WHO LIVE TWO BLOCKS AWAY, THEY'RE REALLY SICK. I THINK IT WAS DR. JONES OR DR. WILLIAMS BROUGHT UP A REALLY GOOD POINT ABOUT INVOLVING THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT. I THINK THAT WOULD BE REALLY BENEFICIAL. BUT AGAIN, I WANT TO THANK YOU ALL FOR HOSTING THIS AND FOR BEING SO CONNECTED WITH US. WE HAD REALLY GOOD CONVERSATIONS. YOU BROUGHT UP SOME EXCELLENT POINTS. IN FACT, ALL THE POINTS THAT I HAD WRITTEN DOWN, EACH ONE OF YOU, I CHECKED THEM ALL OFF MY LIST. I just want to reinforce my support of those. So, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Next, I have Sherry Straub.

Good evening. My name is Sherry Straub, and I reside at 1825 Rainer Drive, Toledo, Ohio. I just wanted to thank you all for hosting this community conversation today and bringing in everybody and making us aware. It was a sad tragedy. And at the loss of life and everything else that is going on, the people of our community, the main answers, we weren't getting them. And so when you don't get them, you look for them yourselves. We hired independent testers because we don't think we're getting the truth. We want answers and we wanted them two weeks ago, not standing here today. I brought in the big dogs with me. I have a couple of teenage kids because that's how concerned they were. These are the kids that play in this neighborhood. These are the kids that are gonna be in your seat someday. So just remember that. And I'm going... Not to go on about myself because this isn't about me. I don't live in that community, but I'm an organizer here with the people of that community and I won't back down. But I do speak for Sarah Locker and I'd like to read what she had wrote because these meetings are, they're set up to where people can't come. Our community isn't able to be here. So with that said, If you could just give me a few moments. It says, my name is Sarah Locker. And unfortunately, I could not physically be present today for this meeting. I come to you straight from my heart on behalf of my family and my fellow neighbors. August 18th was supposed to be a day like any other day. Wake up, have coffee with my husband on the front porch. and wave at the neighbors as they walk their dogs, water their plants, and greet our children as we do every single morning. We are a family of routine. Little did we know that morning would be far from routine. I got home from work at 12.15 a.m. that morning, and like a lot of people, she couldn't go to bed right away. She laid in bed and watched some TV until she started getting sleepy before the clock said it was 4.15 a.m. She reached for the remote, shut the TV off and dozed off only to be awoken 30 minutes later by what she thought was someone hitting a transformer. She started to go back to sleep and then even a louder boom shook their entire home, caused her husband to leap out of bed in a state of panic, running out the front door to investigate what the madness was. also terrified and ripped them from their sleep. I don't know if you guys seen the videos online, but it also scared the heck out of their cats. Following hours will forever be burned into our memories, flames of smoke barreling through the sky and the air. People running from all directions, fire trucks, ambulance, police. It was almost like a scene from a movie. We had a lady pull into our driveway that was supposed to be reporting to work for her 5 a.m. shift at Bren Industries. She was horrified. Family members of those inside scrambling everywhere. Neighbors in their pajamas flocking to see what was happening. Then the smells of chemicals burning the air. The smoke so thick there was little to no visibility at all. ash dropping from the sky like snow. As the days go on, we all start to ponder what caused this to happen. The scent of chemicals burning in our noses caused headaches among other symptoms residents till this day experience. Two people lost their lives that day and the community that surrounds Brett Industries are suffering the loss as well. We as residents live with the smell of what we've been told isn't toxic, and the headaches, sore throats, stomach cramping, et cetera, continue. You can't tell me that a chemical plant explodes and there's no toxins in the air or the soil or the water. People that don't live there where we live or seen what we saw can tell me or my neighbors that it's safe. Respectfully, I don't believe that one bit. I personally have experienced several symptoms that are the very same as my neighbors I have spoke to. My kids are feeling them as well. September 1st, while at work, I got a text from my husband saying there was smoke coming from the same stack at Brent Industries again, and the smell was much worse than yet before. Yet again, we're still being told there's no toxins. And again, I don't believe that. None of the people here today do. Today, my 16-year-old son Evan and his friend Damian are standing with me to represent their family because her husband and she could not be here in person. They wanted to be present to show the council members that his generation truly cares about what's happening five doors down from where they live, to show you all that he wants answers as well, too. those we want justice for those of us who continue to see ground zero site smell those chemicals and deal with the headaches the sore throats the stomach cramps to show everyone that because of this we had to leave our safe place we call home to stay in a hotel for the night and because we were worried about going home and having to deal with it all over and over we got no help so No answers, just left in the dark, shoved under a rug, if you will. What is it that the city plans to do? Is the city gonna relocate those of us close to Brent Industries temporarily until it's cleaned up? To be honest, I doubt it, because like so many other issues the city faces, we feel it will get forgotten about after a while, and the residents will be forced to just deal with it. On behalf of my family, we continue to pray for the families who lost their loved ones, and we continue to fight for what we feel is right. And respectfully, this isn't right. She thanks you for taking the time to listen. But Dr. Jones made a point, and I think what you're looking for is an ICD-10 form. from the health department because they can document that at the hospital. I know that when I was working on the cyanobacteria, they didn't have that at the time. So it was something that we helped the health department implement and create. Keeping data of everybody that has been sick, it is important because what happens today It may not be just today. Like this gentleman from the EPA said, or the fire chief, you know, what is in the air? What was in that plume? Just because it wasn't in your area, that plume went over your house. My nephew works for DOT and was standing on I-280 in the turnpike and seeing the plume go over top of him. So you can't tell me that that stayed in that backyard. And that's all. You guys have a nice day. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.

Thanks, Sherry. Up next, I have Sue Tarrow.

My name is...

My name is Sue Terrell. I live at 1844 Lindbrook, but I had a home at 551 Thad a couple blocks away for several years when my kids went to school in that area. I went to the press conference because I was very concerned about city council really meeting with its citizens in person and really knowing the issues that their citizens are facing. So it was really important to me that there— It's been I think exemplified by a previous speaker that this meeting should be held over in the area Borough score or whatever rather than here The person that testified with the letter from you know, someone who couldn't make it how many other people couldn't make it and or I just think when you say make it, you know driving here and You have to, you know, having access to getting to the building, paying for parking, coming down to city council before council members. I think there should have been some kind of emergency vehicle in the neighborhood, parked in the neighborhood to answer questions from the neighbors, you know, for a period of time, just parked there so that people were getting information right away. And I brought this subject up before in many cases before City Council. I think there should be satellite offices of City Council in the districts. There has to be a closer relationship with City Council with its members, not necessarily through some of these organizations that supposedly represent us. And I also want to point out that I noticed that, who is the official contractor? The name wasn't stated. Anyway, I'll put that out there, the name wasn't stated. But in any event, I recognize too that they said, oh, the measurement was done within a mile. My God, are we testing a plume or wherever? How far did it actually go? And have we tested the soil, the pools, the plants, and the care of the animals? So has that been tested? I don't know. I haven't heard that related. So I think the idea of residue is a very important issue, and I don't know if it was explored, but I certainly think it should have been. And just so that you know, after I attended your press conference, I made signs for the neighborhood. I placed it on Facebook, information about it. I announced it at the Universal Unitarian Church so they could announce it over their media TV program so the word got out. But I'm very concerned how the word really does get out in this day and age. There has to be a better way of communicating with the public. Thank you.

The company is GHD that is doing the cleanup.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

The company doing the cleanup is GHD.

What does that stand for?

I think it's just the name of their company. Is it from Toledo?

Is it a Toledo company?

Do you know the answer to that question?

Their listed address is Rosemont, Illinois.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear him.

Rosemont, Illinois is their address that's listed. Okay. And the company, Brent Industries is the company that hired, they hired this cleanup company, correct?

Okay, so there wasn't another, you didn't have your own? When you refer to the other company, it wasn't, it was always Brett.

The responsibility is on Brent to clean up their own mess, yes. Okay, all right. That wasn't clear to me. Yep, and the Ohio EPA is overseeing that cleanup effort. They're the governmental agency that is going to be holding them accountable.

See, all this information has already been, you know, as witnesses are telling you, how do people get this information? How do they know where things stand? It's still being fearful. I mean, any time being fearful of any loud noise or the smell of something burning. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for your testimony. I have one more person on this list, and there is a sheet that's out. I think we might have another there too, but up next is Leonard Chandler.

Good evening, how is everybody doing? I'm really, after listening to Ed, this is my first council meeting coming to, and I'm kind of impressed because I didn't know this kind of stuff was happening in Toledo. I don't really want to address the problem I came here with because these people are going through something way more than what I came to talk about. So I got a letter here. I live at 1435 Montgomery Street. My name is Leonard Chandler. My issue was trying to get my street paved for over 20 years. And I keep getting the runaround about when it's going to get paved. It was posted, been on the list two years ago. When I called, engaged the leader. The lady finally guided me through the website to see what has actually been done. where it went from my whole street being paved to just one block. So when I'm not going, like I said, I'm not going to go deep into my, because this issue is just way more than what y'all got. I got letters from Hales Crone's performance. They are on the end of Albion and MacCumber. I moved in my house in February 1989. I've been living there, a homeowner since then, paying taxes. And I've been trying to get this street paved back when Tyrone Riley was around. I had the mayor come over there. I was the city council. I was the chairman for our neighborhood coalition, which we never got nothing done. So once I seen that you guys only did one block of Montgomery, between upton and that first street and just left everybody else hanging i got tired of calling and wanting they're not getting away i want to come speak to you guys in person so the president of hell's chrome letters for all of y'all so i want to give maybe you can pass this out to them because i don't have my glasses to read it but my issue is nowhere near what these people is going to so i'm not going to waste you guys time when they got bigger issues than i got

so we're grateful that you came down uh i i have a number listed here that you put down it's okay we call you with yes i appreciate it yeah of course we will try to get your answers and communicate that to you all right thank you of course thank you thank you up next cindy krauser

Good evening. Thank you for the time this evening. I live at 554 Shea, which is at the opposite end of where Chris lives. When I first saw that Chris was saying he was having breathing issues, my husband and I both said, well, we don't notice anything down here. Last night I went out for a walk and, um, met Chris for the first time, so tragedies do introduce you to your neighbors, fortunately or unfortunately. The smell was horrendous last night. You could taste it. You could smell it. I had to turn around and finish my walk. But because of that walk, I got to know about what was happening tonight. So my biggest point that I want to talk about is the communication. We've heard nothing from anybody. So the only way I knew about this was from meeting Chris. There's not been... a door hanger, a piece of mail that came to tell us this is what we are doing. Should you experiencing any of these issues, this is who you should call. Some people know all that. A lot of people don't. And so I just think that we need to be better about that. I think our little neighborhood there in South Toledo is We're experiencing ongoing issues. Now this. And I think we just need to be paid attention.