2010-01-25
Technician’s Journal #2 My Very First Job
I started working for Bio-Clean of New Jersey a little over a year ago. Originally, I was just the graphic design guy, but as time went on, after some training, I started to go out on jobs. Some people (including myself at first) may think, “Why would you VOLUNTARILY put yourself in a situation where you had to clean up the most disgusting and dangerous stuff on earth?” For me, I think it was because I had to prove I was tough enough. I wanted to look the remnants of death in the face, and man up to the fear of real-life death and gore. I’m a pacifist, so there was no way I was ever going to war unless there was a draft, so this was the only way to really see death.
--This post contains real scene photos. Viewer discretion is advised. Click Here to reveal the rest of the post--
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not some weirdo with a perverted fascination with death. I didn’t get into this thinking, “YEAH, REAL BLOOD AND DEAD PEOPLE, I CAN’T WAIT!” The day of my first job, I was a little scared on the way up. I wanted to see this stuff because I wanted to make myself tough enough that I wouldn’t be scared or completely freaked out by a real crime scene. Watching a horror movie is one thing, but actually going into a REAL murder scene, with REAL blood from a REAL person… It’s intense. I thought that seeing this stuff in real life would prepare me if I was in a violence filled situation later in life, and now that I’ve done it, I think I was right. Blood and gore, real or Hollywood, no longer phases me. Sure there are still jobs that FREAK me out, but the blood and remnants of violent acts don’t send shivers up my spine like they once did. If terrorists attack, if there’s a violent situation in front of me, if the sh!t just hits the fan; I think I’ll be able to think clearer than the average person just because I’m used to the sights and smells of violent trauma.
Other than proving that I was tough enough to handle actually walking through a crime scene, I think the other thing that made me want to go on a bio-cleaning job was Mike Rowe. Mike Rowe is the man- period (I mean, the guy was an opera singer before he hosted TV!), and dirty Jobs is one of my favorite shows. I went to Rowan University for Radio/TV/Film, with a focus on documentary filmmaking. Bio-Clean let me prove I can handle the dirtiest and most terrifying job; any assignment I could be sent on, or choose to go on while filming would be well within my capacity (so Discovery and A&E, if you’re reading this, send me an e-mail!)
So now you know my thinking going into this job. It’s my first time, I’m a little nervous, but I’m ready to look the reality of life and death in the face. Time to talk about the job.
--This post contains real scene photos. Viewer discretion is advised. Click Here to reveal the rest of the post--
Labels: bio-recovery corporation, biohazard, crime scene cleanup, death cleanup, homicide, suicide, technician's journal, traumatic death cleaning
2010-01-07
Creepy Urban Legends -- THAT HAPPEN TO BE TRUE!
Today I've got an interesting post for you guys, courtesy of Cracked.com and my internet buddy Lex10. Here at Bio-Clean, during the course of any given work day, we see some things that we just can't believe are real. Horrifying murder scenes, toilets full of blood -- things that could take a movie from rated R to NC-17. The truth is many times stranger and creepier than fiction. SO - on that note, check out 6 Creepy Urban Legends That Happen To Be True! Hope you enjoy it!
Labels: American Bio Recovery Association, bio-recovery corporation, bloody, crime scene cleanup, homicide, suicide
2009-11-24
Trauma Cleaning: Without Standards, The Pain Can Keep Coming
by Kent Berg
November 4, 2009
As an instructor in crime and trauma-scene recovery and a board member of the American Bio-Recovery Association, I am often approached by attorneys, the public and insurance adjusters to evaluate the service they or their clients received from other crime-scene cleanup companies.
For the most part, these are just routine questions from people who want to make sure that the service they received was within the normal parameters of good practice. But a few times each month I receive calls that just cause my stomach to knot up and my blood to boil.
With the bio-recovery industry in its 14th year, it is mind-boggling to find individuals who still decide that they are going to start-up a new company and declare themselves “experts” in crime and trauma scene cleanup without any research or training.
It is even more outrageous to find that, although they know almost nothing about the science, chemistry, biology or laws of our industry, they are charging fees that are often four or five times the industry average.
The majority of those operating in the industry today are honest, ethical professionals. It’s the few bad apples in the bio-recovery barrel, so to speak, that amplify the problems tainting our industry.
Example 1: The Hit-and-Run Guys
A husband argues with his wife in their kitchen. As she prepares supper, he grabs a shotgun and, standing in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room, blows his head off.
It is still daylight when the police arrive. In order to see better, they open the brain-splattered dining room drapes. Splatter is on the dining room and kitchen walls, but since the body fell onto the vinyl tile floor of the kitchen, the largest amount of blood pooled there.
The family asks the police about scene cleanup, and is directed to a local company. The company tells the family that payment will have to be made in cash prior to starting the job, and that the family will not be allowed inside of the house while the cleaning process takes place.
The family agrees and stays with relatives until they get the call that the job is complete and they can return. The company is long gone, and upon cursory inspection, the rooms look contaminant-free.
It is now night and, in an effort to keep neighbors from seeing into the dining room, the wife pulls the drapes closed. To the horror of the family, the drapes had apparently never been checked and still have blood and brain matter clinging to the material.
The kitchen floor appears to be clean but, when the wife walks across the floor, bright red blood spurts up between the tiles, making little puddles and polka-dotting her shoes.
If this isn’t enough to re-traumatize the family, the wife goes to remove the now-cold pot of chili from the stove and promptly throws up when she sees a 3-inch piece of her husband’s skull nestled neatly atop the pot.
The family contacted the attorney general for their state, who then called me to review the family’s statements prior to a decision on prosecution.
Example 2: The Little-Extra-on-the-Side Guys
A man who lived alone died in his bed of natural causes, but wasn’t found for several weeks. When the authorities were finally called, the decomposition could be smelled from the street.
When a crime-scene-cleanup company was called in, the man’s relatives were told that the odor had permeated everything in the house with disease. Their recommendation was that everything in the house should be removed and destroyed.
The family, already nauseated from the smell, relied on the “professional opinion” of the technicians and agreed to let them remove everything from the good silver and china to the appliances.
In short, every piece of furniture, appliance, electronic component and fixture was removed because they were declared “not salvageable.”
The relatives were then presented with a bill for approximately $40,000! If this wasn’t obscene enough, a few weeks later the family found many of the home’s contents that were supposedly “not salvageable” being sold at a local flea market.
Example 3: The Cutting-Down-on-Overhead Guys
It is standard practice for crime and trauma-scene cleanup companies to dispose of human-blood-contaminated items that can’t be salvaged. They do this by red-bagging and boxing these items and sending them to a medical waste processing facility. This includes dismantling recliners, mattresses, and other large items to fit in these containers.
In this case, a company responded to a gunshot suicide in an apartment. The victim had sat in his favorite recliner and put a pistol in his mouth. The subsequent wound bled profusely until there was no more blood for the heart to pump. This resulted in the complete saturation of the recliner.
In an apparent effort to save on labor and disposal fees, the crew decided that they would dispose of the recliner by wrapping it in plastic, putting it in the back of their truck and then dumping it in the woods of a neighboring county.
All seemed to go well until a few days later, when hunters found the chair and called police. Thinking that they had stumbled upon evidence of a homicide, the police launched a full-scale investigation that lasted for weeks and logged many detective hours before they were actually able to review the crime scene photos of every police department in the surrounding counties.
When the mystery was finally attributed to this particular crime-scene-cleanup company, not only were they slapped with fines for littering, they were saddled with reimbursing the cost of the investigation. Every law enforcement agency that heard about this dropped the company like a hot potato, and the subsequent media attention tarnished the reputation of crime-scene-cleanup companies everywhere.
I would like to emphasize the fact that these complaints are not clients disappointed with a poorly painted wall or an out-of-true vanity top. These are abuses by unscrupulous companies that are subjecting their clients to financial greed, improper disinfection, and re-traumatizing that no one should have to endure.
Could training and certification eliminate these types of abuse? Perhaps a good portion of them, but in the end, it is the honesty and character of the companies themselves that should be monitored. I believe the way to do that is to pursue standards, as well as meeting with our state legislators to create specific regulations for our industry.
November 4, 2009
As an instructor in crime and trauma-scene recovery and a board member of the American Bio-Recovery Association, I am often approached by attorneys, the public and insurance adjusters to evaluate the service they or their clients received from other crime-scene cleanup companies.For the most part, these are just routine questions from people who want to make sure that the service they received was within the normal parameters of good practice. But a few times each month I receive calls that just cause my stomach to knot up and my blood to boil.
With the bio-recovery industry in its 14th year, it is mind-boggling to find individuals who still decide that they are going to start-up a new company and declare themselves “experts” in crime and trauma scene cleanup without any research or training.
It is even more outrageous to find that, although they know almost nothing about the science, chemistry, biology or laws of our industry, they are charging fees that are often four or five times the industry average.
The majority of those operating in the industry today are honest, ethical professionals. It’s the few bad apples in the bio-recovery barrel, so to speak, that amplify the problems tainting our industry.
Example 1: The Hit-and-Run Guys
A husband argues with his wife in their kitchen. As she prepares supper, he grabs a shotgun and, standing in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room, blows his head off.
It is still daylight when the police arrive. In order to see better, they open the brain-splattered dining room drapes. Splatter is on the dining room and kitchen walls, but since the body fell onto the vinyl tile floor of the kitchen, the largest amount of blood pooled there.
The family asks the police about scene cleanup, and is directed to a local company. The company tells the family that payment will have to be made in cash prior to starting the job, and that the family will not be allowed inside of the house while the cleaning process takes place.
The family agrees and stays with relatives until they get the call that the job is complete and they can return. The company is long gone, and upon cursory inspection, the rooms look contaminant-free.
It is now night and, in an effort to keep neighbors from seeing into the dining room, the wife pulls the drapes closed. To the horror of the family, the drapes had apparently never been checked and still have blood and brain matter clinging to the material.
The kitchen floor appears to be clean but, when the wife walks across the floor, bright red blood spurts up between the tiles, making little puddles and polka-dotting her shoes.
If this isn’t enough to re-traumatize the family, the wife goes to remove the now-cold pot of chili from the stove and promptly throws up when she sees a 3-inch piece of her husband’s skull nestled neatly atop the pot.
The family contacted the attorney general for their state, who then called me to review the family’s statements prior to a decision on prosecution.
Example 2: The Little-Extra-on-the-Side Guys
 |
When a crime-scene-cleanup company was called in, the man’s relatives were told that the odor had permeated everything in the house with disease. Their recommendation was that everything in the house should be removed and destroyed.
The family, already nauseated from the smell, relied on the “professional opinion” of the technicians and agreed to let them remove everything from the good silver and china to the appliances.
In short, every piece of furniture, appliance, electronic component and fixture was removed because they were declared “not salvageable.”
The relatives were then presented with a bill for approximately $40,000! If this wasn’t obscene enough, a few weeks later the family found many of the home’s contents that were supposedly “not salvageable” being sold at a local flea market.
Example 3: The Cutting-Down-on-Overhead Guys
 |
In this case, a company responded to a gunshot suicide in an apartment. The victim had sat in his favorite recliner and put a pistol in his mouth. The subsequent wound bled profusely until there was no more blood for the heart to pump. This resulted in the complete saturation of the recliner.
In an apparent effort to save on labor and disposal fees, the crew decided that they would dispose of the recliner by wrapping it in plastic, putting it in the back of their truck and then dumping it in the woods of a neighboring county.
All seemed to go well until a few days later, when hunters found the chair and called police. Thinking that they had stumbled upon evidence of a homicide, the police launched a full-scale investigation that lasted for weeks and logged many detective hours before they were actually able to review the crime scene photos of every police department in the surrounding counties.
When the mystery was finally attributed to this particular crime-scene-cleanup company, not only were they slapped with fines for littering, they were saddled with reimbursing the cost of the investigation. Every law enforcement agency that heard about this dropped the company like a hot potato, and the subsequent media attention tarnished the reputation of crime-scene-cleanup companies everywhere.
I would like to emphasize the fact that these complaints are not clients disappointed with a poorly painted wall or an out-of-true vanity top. These are abuses by unscrupulous companies that are subjecting their clients to financial greed, improper disinfection, and re-traumatizing that no one should have to endure.
Could training and certification eliminate these types of abuse? Perhaps a good portion of them, but in the end, it is the honesty and character of the companies themselves that should be monitored. I believe the way to do that is to pursue standards, as well as meeting with our state legislators to create specific regulations for our industry.
Reprinted With Permission of Kent Berg
Kent Berg is the Director of the National Institute of Decontamination Specialists, an international crime and trauma scene cleanup training center certified by the American BioRecovery Association (ABRA). He is also a consultant and expert witness in the field of crime and trauma scene biorecovery. Kent can be reached at (864) 855-3400 or at www.NIDStraining.com
Don't let a crooked Trauma Scene cleaning company take advantage of you during your most vulnerable time. Bio-Clean of New Jersey is licensed, bonded, fully insured and well accredited. If tragedy strikes you or your loved ones, call Bio-Clean of New Jersey an honest trauma cleaning company.
Labels: American Bio Recovery Association, bio-recovery corporation, biohazard, biorecovery, d, death cleanup, traumatic death cleaning
2009-10-06
It takes four months, but Hamilton pays $15,000 to fix, clean dead man's house
By SULAIMAN ABDUR-RAHMAN Staff writer, Trentonian
HAMILTON — Deborah Thomeier said she has a “renewed faith in the government of Hamilton Township” after it acted “efficiently and quickly” in cleaning up and structurally rehabbing her dead next-door neighbor’s property on Joan Terrace.
“My husband (Joe) and I are very pleased with the speed and the efficiency of the township. ... The property looks 100 percent different,” Thomeier said, referring to the household of the late Edward Bratton, 86, who died of natural causes and was found as a rotting corpse inside his house June 13.
At that time, the interior of the home was littered with garbage and the house’s exterior was covered with vines and tree branches.
Township officials described the interior as a “biohazard” and deemed the rear area of the house to be structurally unsound.
The Thomeiers and other neighbors on the 100 block of Joan Terrace went on the offensive at a July public meeting, accusing the township of being inept at addressing their concerns about the dilapidated and filthy conditions of Bratton’s home.
The township said it couldn’t take action right away because Bratton, a retired state worker, had no known next of kin who could grant them permission to rehab the property. Consequently, the township had to enter a prolonged legal process to rectify the situation.
The township by early September obtained the authority to go to work, spending $8,800 of taxpayer money for a private company to clean the interior and using federal block grant money to pay for the $7,000 structural fixes and demolition of the house’s dilapidated rear.
Rob Warney of the township’s Department of Community Planning and Compliance told The Trentonian the entire clean-up and structural rehabbing was completed last month.
“We have no complaints at this point. We’re just happy it’s over with,” Deborah Thomeier told the newspaper on Thursday. “They did a nice job. They really did. ... I didn’t expect it to be done by the end of September.”
HAMILTON — Deborah Thomeier said she has a “renewed faith in the government of Hamilton Township” after it acted “efficiently and quickly” in cleaning up and structurally rehabbing her dead next-door neighbor’s property on Joan Terrace.
“My husband (Joe) and I are very pleased with the speed and the efficiency of the township. ... The property looks 100 percent different,” Thomeier said, referring to the household of the late Edward Bratton, 86, who died of natural causes and was found as a rotting corpse inside his house June 13.
At that time, the interior of the home was littered with garbage and the house’s exterior was covered with vines and tree branches.
Township officials described the interior as a “biohazard” and deemed the rear area of the house to be structurally unsound.
The Thomeiers and other neighbors on the 100 block of Joan Terrace went on the offensive at a July public meeting, accusing the township of being inept at addressing their concerns about the dilapidated and filthy conditions of Bratton’s home.
The township said it couldn’t take action right away because Bratton, a retired state worker, had no known next of kin who could grant them permission to rehab the property. Consequently, the township had to enter a prolonged legal process to rectify the situation.
The township by early September obtained the authority to go to work, spending $8,800 of taxpayer money for a private company to clean the interior and using federal block grant money to pay for the $7,000 structural fixes and demolition of the house’s dilapidated rear.
Rob Warney of the township’s Department of Community Planning and Compliance told The Trentonian the entire clean-up and structural rehabbing was completed last month.
“We have no complaints at this point. We’re just happy it’s over with,” Deborah Thomeier told the newspaper on Thursday. “They did a nice job. They really did. ... I didn’t expect it to be done by the end of September.”
Labels: American Bio Recovery Association, bio-recovery corporation, biohazard, biorecovery, crime scene cleanup, death cleanup, new jersey, traumatic death cleaning
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