A 116-year-old Portland mill contaminated with asbestos is slated for demolition, alarming nearby residents who fear a plume of hazardous dust could spread through the city just days after a fire tore through the site with a person believed to have been inside.
The planned controlled blast at Centennial Mills warehouse in the Pearl District is scheduled for Monday, following the massive August 2 fire at the long-abandoned eight-story waterfront building. Officials said four explosive charges will be placed around the structure’s water tower.
Portland Fire & Rescue has confirmed the building tested positive for asbestos. K9 teams also signaled the possible presence of human remains inside, though officials have not released additional information about the person’s identity or the circumstances of their death.
Asbestos, once commonly used in construction materials, is made of microscopic fibers that can become dangerous when inhaled. Exposure has been linked to cancer and other severe health conditions.
City officials have said using explosives is intended to reduce the risk of asbestos exposure during the demolition. Still, authorities are urging people nearby to stay inside, close their windows and keep at least 300 feet away from the building when the blast occurs.
Some residents remain unconvinced, telling KOIN they are worried about the possibility of breathing in cancer-causing dust after the structure comes down.
‘My biggest question right now is if that dust gets outside of the demolition zone, what will the city be doing to help clean it up and make sure that we residents and also our pets are safe?’ local resident Connor McCarthy told the outlet.
‘I feel like we were all being flavor-blasted with asbestos, and there’s no one here to, like, stand up for us or look out,’ another neighbor, Jack Martin, said.
A controlled demolition of the water tower on top of the Centennial Mills warehouse in Portland, Oregon is scheduled to take place Monday
The blast was prompted after a massive fire broke out in the abandoned structure on August 2
There is no scheduled time for the explosion, but residents will receive a public alert via text message one hour beforehand, in addition to sirens sounding closer to the countdown.
The dust cloud concerns come after the community was hit with smoke from the fire earlier this month.
Debris and ash were scattered throughout the neighborhood, prompting officials to send workers in personal protective gear to clean up the area. However, officials stressed that crews wearing that equipment did not indicate a risk to the public.
Authorities added that air quality tests conducted the day after the fire showed contaminant levels measured outside the immediate fire area posed a low health risk.
After the blaze, investigators used drones and K9 units to search the compromised structure.
Jason Andersen, an investigator with Portland Fire & Rescue, told KGW8 on August 7 that authorities were investigating the possibility that a person was inside.
‘We’re not able to say with any definitive level of “yes, there are human remains within the building,”‘ he said.
Portland Fire & Rescue officials said the eight-story waterfront building has tested positive for asbestos, and K9 teams alerted to what are believed to be human remains
The mill was built in 1910 before it caught fire two years later, prompting the addition of the water tower. It closed in the 1990s and was sold to the city before being purchased by property owner Stuart Lindquist for $1.25million in 2024
‘The loss of human life is something that we take very seriously. This is a very complicated fire investigation. It’s a scene that has impacted the city in many different ways, the community as a whole, so we want to ensure that we are doing the best job and the most thorough job possible.’
A cause of the fire has not been released, as the demolition must take place before investigators can safely conduct a full examination.
The mill was built in 1910 before it caught fire two years later, prompting the addition of the water tower to provide firefighters with ready access to water on the upper floors, according to KGW8.
It closed in the 1990s and was sold to the city before being purchased by property owner Stuart Lindquist for $1.25million in 2024.
Locals had previously complained that the abandoned building led to repeated issues with squatters and homeless campers, Neighborhood Association president Bruce Studer told the outlet in July.
The mill is just another issue Portland residents can add to the list of problems plaguing the city.
Downtown Portland has suffered a decline in recent years, with tent encampments and drug use running rampant.
Locals are concerned that the blast may lead to their community being hit with a cloud of asbestos and will blanket their city in the dangerous substance
A cause of the fire has not been released, as the demolition must take place before investigators can safely conduct a full examination
The downturn was accelerated by the state’s experiment with drug decriminalization, which reduced possession of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine to the equivalent of a parking ticket.
What was meant as a progressive reform instead fueled an overdose crisis and entrenched open-air drug markets across the city.
By 2023, Oregon counted more than 20,000 homeless people, nearly two-thirds of them unsheltered, as overdose deaths surged.
The state has since reversed course, recriminalizing hard-drug possession, but downtown Portland has struggled to recover.
