An explosion and a fire in a unit complex in Binnaway, population 400, have triggered a series of unfortunate events for the building’s owner, local councillor Ray Lewis.
“I was trying to do a clean-up, not a dirty-up,” said Lewis, who has been charged with offences relating to his alleged dumping of asbestos-riddled debris from the building onto Crown land. He has also been charged with providing false or misleading information to his own council.
Warrumbungle Shire Councillor Ray Lewis says his Binnaway unit complex ‘had a bomb go off’.
Known locally as “Boss Hogg” after the controversial fictional politician in the US television series The Dukes of Hazzard, Thomas Raymond Lewis, 71, is a long-time officeholder on the Warrumbungle Shire Council, which includes the central west towns of Coolah, Coonabarabran and Binnaway.
“It had a bomb go off. A bloke filled his flat up with gas and then lit a match,” Lewis told the Herald of the October 2023 explosion and fire, which destroyed his two-storey unit complex in Renshaw Street. A number of his tenants suffered injuries and one man, who suffered serious burns, had to be airlifted to Sydney for specialist treatment.
In the debris of Lewis’s unit block, local officials identified friable asbestos, which occurs when asbestos is subjected to fire or explosive force.
Street view of the unit complex owned by Councillor Ray Lewis before it was destroyed by an explosion in 2023.Credit:
Asbestos was banned from use in the construction industry more than 20 years ago because of its links to serious lung disease. Friable asbestos, which can be easily crumbled, poses a much greater health hazard and can be removed only by a Class A licensed asbestos removalist.
The council issued Lewis a directive requiring him to obtain the necessary permits to handle the removal of the friable asbestos during the demolition of the building.
Instead, Lewis is alleged to have dumped the polluted material on remote Crown land. Investigators found 500 cubic metres, the equivalent of 80 truckloads, of the asbestos–contaminated debris dumped only twenty metres from the Castlereagh River.