‘Appalling’: Newcastle residents question response after wool store fire showers homes with asbestos

Newcastle residents had to register to qualify for public works cleaning, but many say they only learned through social media and word of mouth. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Newcastle residents whose homes were showered in asbestos fragments and other materials after a massive warehouse fire in early March say they are dismayed by the New South Wales government’s response to the disaster.

Three weeks after the fire broke out in an old wool store in the inner Newcastle suburb of Wickham, a primary school remains closed as authorities deal with the cleanup.