A house in the former Vandenberg East housing area sits empty with a mark indicating it will be a part of a controlled burn later. The Vandenberg Fire Department conducted a series of controlled burns in several houses to train its firefighters in a realistic environment.

The homes in East Housing of Vandenberg have been demolished as part of a contract awarded to the Los Angeles District. The project for phases one through three was awarded in September 2006 and began in February. Before demolition, however, there were environmental factors to be addressed.
 
“We had to perform the abatement of hazardous material before we began demolition,” said Shannon R. Cossa, construction representative at the district’s Vandenberg Resident Office. “Hazardous material included asbestos, lead paint, lead glazing on ceramic tile and mercury in the thermometer switches."

Cossa said it was important to ensure these toxins were removed from homes prior to demolition to ensure proper disposal.

“Everything belongs in its own designated place,” she said. “We don’t want it being released into the open air or just dumped into a landfill.”

The process goes on for three to four weeks before the demolition crews begin their work. The delay allows both crews to continue working without demolition workers being bogged down by abatement crews. Cossa said abatement for an average six-plex house takes six days but demolishing the same house takes only two days. In addition to the houses, the issue of what do to do with the playground equipment in the housing area had to be addressed.
 

A construction worker hoses down a section of a house to keep dust from flying as it is town down in August. This section of the former Vandenberg East housing area was demolished during the Phase one through Phase Three demolition project just outside Vandenberg AFB.

“A quarter of a million dollars may not seem like a lot in some budgets,” Black said. “But it’s a lot for us. It means we have a quarter of a million more to go towards improvements in our buildings. It’s money that gets freed up to do a lot of good for a lot of kids.”

With the playground equipment moved to schools on and around Vandenberg, destruction of the former houses could proceed. Demolition was not the only fate in store for some of the former military housing area. The Vandenberg Fire Department (VFD) received permission to perform practice burns in four duplexes and a single-family residence.
 
“In a single-family unit, we generally have three bedrooms, the living room area and other rooms to use,” said Phillip Bennie, VFD assistant chief. “We may have two small fires in each bedroom and other fires throughout the house. It’s usually about ten small internal fires in a single-family unit.”

Several playground areas like this one outside a house in the former Vandenberg East housing area were donated to the Lompoc Unified School District. The school district paid to have contractors remove the playground equipment and install it at area schools.

Bennie said he expects to receive five buildings to use for training fires in the upcoming Phase IV portion of the Vandenberg housing demolition. He expects that process to begin early next year.