'Never seen anything like this.' EPA unveils plan for chemical-laden 'hoarder's home'

The Highview home that was found full of chemicals will be dismantled, said Chuck Berry, an on-scene coordinator with the Environmental Protection Agency. Officials plan to start preparing the site on Oct. 9.

It will not be demolished, he said, but carefully taken apart starting with the roof and then the walls. The contents of the house will be removed "little bit by little bit" and then "processed in a steel tank buried in the ground in the backyard." This will not begin before Oct. 16.

After that, the contents will be shipped off for disposal.

There are still potential hazards that community members need to be aware of, Berry told residents gathered Thursday evening at Highview Baptist Church.

"If we didn't think we could do the work safely, we wouldn't be doing it," Berry said. "But there are still risks."

One is possible detonations.

The home at 6213 Applegate Lane belongs to Marc Hibel, who was arrested in July after Louisville Metro Police said they found homemade explosives at the residence. Mayor Craig Greenberg previously described it as a "hoarder's home."

There are "500 to 1,000" little bottles of unknown white powders in the house, Berry said, which means there could be pops and bangs as the crew disassembles the house.

"We don't think any of those are going to be big enough to impact the local neighbors," he said, but "we're going to build a wall of container boxes around the perimeter of the property to deflect any lateral blast that might come out of boxes buried in the ground."

Chemical reactions could also occur during the deconstruction process. To mitigate this risk, the agencies will continually pull small amounts of material out of the house and put them in "crush boxes." There will also be "multilevel air monitoring" at the site.

Finally, the risk of fire is "not zero," Berry said.

If this does occur, it could be "catastrophic" and could affect people several blocks away from the property. The Fern Creek Fire Department will be on-site with a truck and hose "ready to go." They will also be monitoring the area with infrared technology in order to watch for any temperature spikes. An excavator will also be present, which is one of "the best tools to fight fire," because it can be used to spread out the debris, Berry said.

However, there will be some scenarios where the agency will let small burns occur, which could result in smoke or strange smells. This is not a reason to panic, Berry said, and neighbors will be informed of any emergency situations.

Residents near the property should have an evacuation plan for the "worst case scenario" even though officials do not anticipate one being necessary, said Louisville Metro Emergency Services director Jodie Meiman. The evacuation zone is much smaller than officials previously expected, with only six to eight houses in the range. Those residents have been spoken to, Meiman said.

If one does occur, there is a designated area for those residents to go to, he said.

There is a slightly larger range of neighbors in the surrounding area that Meiman said should familiarize themselves with knowing how to shelter in place, which refers to finding a safe place within a building a person already occupies. Common techniques include residing in the innermost room of the house and away from windows.

"These are the people that would shelter in place in the case of a small controllable fire and or a chemical reaction that could potentially get outside of the confines of the yard," he said, showing the audience a map.

While there is a group text for residents to receive information, Meiman also suggested that people sign up for LENSAlerts. He also said Metro Government is prepared to use an alert system like the one that was nationally tested on Oct. 4.

"We have the ability and have purchased the rights here with Metro Government where we can send those out," Meiman said. "We have already drawn a geospatial area to match this, and we can get that alert to the people inside of there as well as the people that come inside of there."

The deconstruction process should take about three weeks, but that timeline may not be exact.

"I will admit that this is a pretty novel process and the speed at which we do it will be dictated by the reactions that we see whenever we start processing," Berry said. "This is an estimate and may go much quicker and it may go much longer."

He added that crews will work at the site seven days a week, 10 hours a day. Right now the estimated completion is Oct. 27.

Preliminary plans of a controlled burn were shifted in September after concentrations of metallic mercury were discovered nearby.

"This has been very difficult for us to plan," Meiman said. "There's not a lot of experience out there with people actually dealing with a situation like this."

Berry agreed.

In the 25 years he has worked in the field he said he has "never seen anything like this."

Hibel, the owner of the house, has been charged with wanton endangerment.

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Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@courier-journal.com or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville, EPA officials announce plan for Highview 'hoarder's home'