The city of Havre has a dangerous problem.
A report revealed that both the fire station and police station building have egregious amounts of surface lead, other heavy metals, and asbestos.
Fire Chief Nathan Courtnage ensured that every fireman was informed of the situation.
“Yes, all the firemen do know. I was able to reach out to retirees and former employees of the Havre Fire Department and gave them instructions on how to file a work mans comp claim that was given to us through the city of Havre, and also gave them the report of the Hygenics results that came back in October.”-Nathan Courtnage
The fire chief clarified that the fireman not only understand the presence of the harmful substances but are fully aware of their dangers as well.
“The report that was done by Hygenics gave exposure limits and levels and gave long term and short-term exposure results from that, and so I believe everybody is aware of that.”-Nathan Courtnage
Currently the fire department is doing all that they can to limit their exposure.
“Currently we do a lot of cleaning and we’ve done a lot of cleaning since Covid started and took extra precautions on wiping things down and keeping surfaces clean and so we’ve taken on those tasks a little bit more frequently.“-Nathan Courtnage
Overall, Fire Chief Courtnage hopes to have the problem taken care of as soon as possible, but in the meantime, he feels that he and the firemen should be in a safe building.
“We should be in a building that is safe and not have lead and asbestos exposures or heavy metal exposures on a daily basis.”– Nathan Courtnage
