The former military family housing structure at 4 Kansas Street that was the site of a July 2010 fire will be demolished in coming weeks, according to officials at U.S. Army Garrison-Natick.
"It's going right down to the ground, including removal of ... the concrete pad, and also removal of the utilities," said Dave Sanborn, chief of Master Planning at Natick.
The building had been occupied by Chief Warrant Officer Michael Doe and his family. The family wasn't home at the time but lost two cats in the blaze. Doe had just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.
"It was a total loss," said Sanborn of the structure. Demolition of the 1970s-era structure began in early February with the removal of asbestos discovered last fall.
"In some of the sub-flooring, we found asbestos mastic, ... the sticky material that keeps the tile down," said John McHugh, chief of the Environmental and Health Office at Natick. "Now the whole house is being treated as an asbestos remediation site. We will remediate the debris prior to demolishing the house, and dispose of it appropriately."
"Once that's done, depending on the weather, obviously, they'll start the deconstruction of the building," said Sanborn, adding that contractors will recycle what they can, haul the remaining debris to a landfill, and cap utilities at the street.
"The Army uses a process called construction waste diversion," McHugh said. "Essentially, what that means is all the metals go in one dumpster, all the wood goes in another dumpster, and then the other particular recyclable product goes into another dumpster, and these are recycled as opposed to disposed of in a landfill."
The grounds will be restored this spring after snow melt.
"I would say by midsummer, you wouldn't even know a house was there," Sanborn said. "Environmentally, they're being very sensitive around it."
"Going forward on the house, we expect to remediate it through the end of February, and then the demolition - weather permitting - could take a couple weeks," McHugh said. "We expect the house to be down by March 15."
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