A housing council and building maintenance company in the United Kingdom has been fined after they evacuated 12 residences for asbestos exposure. The council and building maintenance company have been fined for putting tenants of the buildings at risk.

The Health and Safety Inspector, Alastair Brown, has said, “Fife Council failed to keep an understandable register of asbestos and failed to ensure that a full survey for asbestos was carried out prior to any work starting, so the information available was not sufficient to alert persons to the immediate danger from the asbestos prior to the work beginning… In view of the council’s previous experience of managing asbestos, this was a very disappointing incident.”

Another member of the Fife Council stated, “This was a very serious and traumatic incident for the tenants concerned who had and who still have our full sympathy for what happened to them.”

Have you or anyone you know ever been evacuated from a building due to asbestos exposure? If so, please share your story.