KINGSBURY -- Ceiling tiles once black with mold are now gleaming white -- a sure sign the fumigation of the Ames building on Dix Avenue earlier this week was a success.

Bio-ONE, the company that performed the fumigation, gave the official thumbs-up when it cut into some of the ceiling tiles and found the insides were bright white as well, said Karen Cavanagh, the company's chief operating officer.

The company blasted the building with chlorine dioxide gas Monday evening for about six hours to kill mold covering the building's inside. A giant black tarp fitted around the entire building prevented gas from escaping into the air.

Crews will remove the tarp Friday and are expected to leave the property by Saturday morning at the latest, she said.

Windsor Development plans to renovate the Ames building into a strip mall. The fumigation allowed Windsor to avoid demolishing the structure.

Bio-ONE normally handles bioterrorism decontamination, but is now looking to apply its methods for killing anthrax to more commercial uses, such as killing mold.

The success of the fumigation project in Kingsbury gave the go-ahead for Bio-ONE to seek out even more mold-killing projects to gain more experience and ultimately market their services on a national scale.

A Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer bus, one of two buses in the world owned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, monitored the air around the building for any hazardous gas emissions during the fumigation. The bus was capable of detecting gases in the air in parts per quadrillion.

"No detectible parts per anything were found outside the perimeter of the building," Cavanagh said.

EPA officials could not be reached for comment.

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