Toxic mold drives a family to raze home

By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff, 9/25/2002

BINGTON - Dean and Patrice Moore stood in front of their four-bedroom home yesterday morning and watched a giant hydraulic claw smash it into splinters and shattered hopes.

But for the Moores, this was not necessarily a bad day.

The Cape-style house the Moores bought eight years ago had turned into a virulent incubator of toxic mold that the family suspects has harmed their children's health. It has exhausted their finances and left them no choice but to destroy their onetime dream house.

''This was the only thing we could do,'' said Patrice Moore, 39, as she watched the jagged pieces of her home disappear in the back of a waste-hauling truck.

Since the spring of 2001, the 1950s-era home on Richard Road turned from comfort to culprit, as a mysterious, noxious smell in the master bedroom led Dean Moore to uncover a crawl space covered with mold. Meanwhile, the family had become sick with worrisome ailments that included heart troubles, kidney problems, asthma, chronic dizziness, and neurological neck pain.

No one has determined the definitive source of the mold, but the family believes it was the septic system. Despite the extreme nature of the problem that struck the Moores, they are not alone: Mold-related allergies are a growing problem among children nationwide.

''We visited so many doctors, but we had no clue what was going on,'' Patrice Moore said.

''We were at the pediatricians weekly,'' her husband said.

To compound the nightmare, the Moores said, the state's insurer of last resort made yesterday's demolition inevitable by canceling their homeowner's policy in June without explanation. That decision angered the couple, who said Massachusetts FAIR Plan revoked the insurance two months after issuing a policy with ample knowledge of the home's mold history.

''We showed them everything, and they OK'd it,'' Dean Moore said.

The Moores' lawyer, Audrey Nee, said the state Division of Insurance has been asked to review the cancellation decision. Officials with FAIR Plan did not return messages for comment yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Moores are living in a rented home in Marshfield but plan to rebuild on their Abington property. ''It's a great town, a great neighborhood,'' said Dean Moore, 37, a chef in Boston.

It's a place they want to live despite the discovery of several forms of toxic mold, airborne bacteria, and funguslike substances that have made the last 18 months resemble the premise of a science-fiction plot.

Most of the family's illnesses disappeared shortly after the family left the house in June for a temporary rental in Marshfield, Patrice Moore said. But Mikaela, her 5-year-old daughter, still suffers from a kidney infection, she said.

Her husband said he cannot be sure any of the illnesses are directly related to the mold, some of which were detected in the house as recently as last week. But Dean Moore is suspicious and concedes that he worries about the long-term effects on his three daughters, ages 10, 5, and 3.

Despite the frightening image of airborne spores infecting unsuspecting familes in their homes, federal health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said toxic mold in homes causes few serious health problems in humans.

Whatever its long-term effect, Dean Moore said, the mold that drove him from his house probably spread from a septic tank located 12 inches from a master-bedroom addition built by a previous owner. During their ordeal, the Moores discovered that the septic tank, which was left full, had not been disconnected when the property was joined to the town's sewer system in 1991.

Dean Moore said he donned a charcoal mask and a respirator, cleaned out the mold, double-bagged the mess, and poured a concrete floor over the dirt bottom that separated the addition from the septic tank. Safety Insurance denied their claim for the cleanup, the Moores said, so the family went shopping for a new insurer that could cover the estimated $30,000 to $45,000 cost of having a professional cleaner scour the house to sweep out any remnants of the mold and help prevent its return.

So, when FAIR Plan approved a homeowner's policy, the Moores thought they could remain in their home. Once that option disappeared, they said, the only sensible choice was to destroy it.

''Now, we're just borrowing our life away and hoping somehow, some way, we can rebuild,'' Dean Moore said. That scenario is becoming reality, Moore added. A contractor friend has agreed to build a replacement home at a reduced price, and the couple have been able to refinance their mortgage into a construction loan.

''It's a new beginning,'' he said.

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 9/25/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.