EPA begins removing hazardous materials from fire-damaged factory in Reading

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun removing hazardous materials from a fire-damaged building in Reading.

The EPA on Wednesday started taking some of the approximately 500 containers of hazardous substances and non-hazardous solids from the former Lincoln Chemical Co. building that was partially demolished after fires last fall.

An Oct. 31 fire was quickly contained, but a two-alarm blaze on Nov. 4 was the more serious of the two, and the one that led to much of the brick building having to be knocked down.

The drums and other containers filled with various chemicals are in the basement of the three-story building along the 600 block of South Ninth Street near Laurel Street.

The removal process is expected to take six to eight weeks, EPA officials said.

It’s taking time for the work in the building, which was once a soap manufacturing facility, to be finished because it must be so meticulous, officials said.

The materials will be moved to appropriate waste-disposal facilities, with much of it being incinerated and some of the non-hazardous chemicals going to landfills or being treated, officials said.

The city and the property’s owner will then decide whether to rehabilitate or demolish the structure, according to Reading officials.

The 137-year-old three-story brick building was owned by Lincoln Chemical for about 30 years before the company ceased operations within the last few years. The building was owned by Reading Brewing Co. for 90 years until the mid-1970s.

Lincoln Chemical mixed detergents used in manufacturing operations.