The city of San Diego is currently coming under fire for recklessly placing the city firefighters into a training facility that contained asbestos. The city’s Fire Training Academy was found to have asbestos in it, and people are claiming that due to this fact, the city was putting the firefighters at risk for asbestos exposure. There is currently a class action lawsuit that has been filed against the city due to the reckless endangerment of their firefighters.

    Attorney Maria Severson filed the complaint and stated that, “The city took its workers, the people who serve the public, and put them in harm’s way, knowing there was asbestos exposure.”

    Due to a seperate case of asbestos exposure during the construction of another city official building, many employees had to be relocated. A group of firefighters were moved to the old Naval Training Center. When the city purchased the Naval Training Center to be used for the firefighters, they were well aware of the asbestos contamination in the building.

    The lawsuit claims that, “City employees relocated to NTC faced the same types of conditions they just left, including environmental and breathing conditions, in NTC.”

    Although minor, short-term asbestos exposure is not extremely dangerous, longer term exposure to high levels of asbestos, such as the case with these firefighters, can be very dangerous. There are many different diseases that are the result of asbestos exposure, such as pleural thickening, mesothelioma, and asbestosis.

    The city refuses to comment on the lawsuit that has been filed against them and appear to be brushing all of this under the rug.