YOUNGSTOWN — Despite a request by the city’s firefighters union that firefighters not enter the Realty Tower, a few members of the Youngstown Fire Department went ahead with a plan Wednesday to retrieve duffel bags of items from the 23 apartments on the upper floors of the badly damaged building.

Demolition of the building could begin as early as today.

Youngstown fire Chief Barry Finley was among those who emerged from the building in the morning carrying two duffel bags full of items and to the rear parking lot of the International Towers apartment building next door.

The bags were taken to a tent in the parking lot, where they were processed and eventually turned over to the tenants.

The process was divided into two sessions with tenants residing in the even- numbered apartments being served during the first two-hour session and bags for the odd-number apartments being handled during the second two-hour period.

In addition to Finley, those who retrieved items were Lt. Pat Bundy, investigator Charles Hodge and firefighter Sean Guerreri.

The union’s executive board advised its members not to enter the building because it “believes entrance into the Realty Tower building poses a significant threat to the life and safety of Local 312 members, and as such, we have advised the members against entry into the building.”

“Realty Tower is likely more unstable now than it has ever been,” an email to Finley stated. “Crews of firefighters and equipment carrying out bags of luggage could be all it takes for a partial interior or even global collapse of the remaining structure. There are 1,000-pound pieces of concrete in that wreckage that are dangling from 1-inch rebar. If one of those pieces falls it will kill a firefighter the same as it would anyone else.”

Mahoning County Building Official Jeff Urseva said Wednesday because Finley has already declared Realty Tower an emergency demolition, the work to take down the building could have already commenced.

“They could start now without a permit and follow up with the paperwork,” Urseva said. “They just want to do it the right way.”

YO Properties 47 LLC, Realty Tower’s owner, already has submitted all of the required paperwork to the building department except for one item, Urseva said.

Kurt Seidler, a structural engineer on the project, needs to submit drawings for the inspection of the stabilization work needed at the building for demolition, Urseva said. That should come today, Urseva said.

A Wednesday statement from YO Properties and Live Youngstown Property Management LLC, which manages Realty Tower, states about the demolition, “This is a very fluid process. Final details are being arranged and we intend to begin demolition this week. Our main focus today has been the important operation of retrieving some of our residents’ belongings.”

The joint statement also thanked the four members of the fire department for the work they did retrieving items from the building.

“These men did more than retrieve possessions. They restored residents with a priceless sense of peace. Today, we saw the embodiment of Youngstown’s spirit; people helping each other move forward.”

Dina Pierce, an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman, said the agency has an inspector at Realty Tower who will perform inspections throughout the scheduled demolition activities.

“Ohio regulations typically require regulated asbestos to be removed before demolitions or renovations,” she said. “In circumstances where asbestos is unable to be removed due to safety concerns before demolition, debris should be kept wet to prevent asbestos particles from becoming airborne and handled by an Ohio EPA licensed asbestos contractor. The regulations include requirements for advance notification of demolition, inspections, and proper waste handling and disposal.”

In the Realty Tower case, Pierce said a notice of demolition and renovation asbestos abatement form was submitted.

“We are waiting on some additional information to complete the notification,” she said.

TENANT

Tracey Winbush, who lived on the 10th floor of the Realty Tower with her mother, received her two duffel bags of items — one for her and one for her mother.

“We thank the chief and the firefighters who went in. I thank God for them because some people had things that were very, very important to them. Mine was just mementos of life. Theirs was very important to them, and their lives have been displaced like everyone else’s,” she said.

She said some people had cash and important documents to retrieve. “Your marriage certificate and all those things are not easy to get if you’re not married here,” she said. “Little mementos from your family or your children, your Grandma. Those are things that matter.”

Winbush said she would have liked to have some of her clothes back, but it would have been too difficult to ask a firefighter to look through her closet and find certain items, so she had them bring out jewelry, political mementos she had saved and pair of her mother’s specialty shoes, among other items.

Winbush said being forced out of her home as a result of the gas explosion in the building’s basement May 28 forced her and others to “start over. I got a new job. I’m going to be working for Congressman (Michael) Rulli as his field representative here in Mahoning County.”

Her mother is temporarily staying in a nursing home, but Winbush is looking for another place, she said.

She said she has asked that the demolition company allow residents to look through the debris when the building is demolished in the coming weeks “to make sure before they scrap our goods, they give us the opportunity to go through them.”

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