A Day in the Life of a Crime Scene Clean up Company
Crime scene cleanup is one of those jobs that you may not hear about a whole lot, but if you do the idea definitely has your attention. Needless to say working for a crime scene cleanup company is always a conversation starter with those that we meet and ask about our profession. While it may not be as “exciting” as police work and crime investigation it is needless to say an interesting job. At times it can be disheartening and at other somewhat interesting. Just about anything tragic or unsettling to the stomach that police officers and sometimes even medical examiners get to see on a daily basis can also be found running across our path. There is a lot of blood cleanup involved, and sometimes thing get even messier than that, so it’s not a job for the squeamish.
Crime scene cleanup goes more in depth than just cleaning up a mess. It may involve blood cleanup or even cleaning up after a mass shooting like the one that recently, tragically took place in Orlando only just recently. More than disposing of the messy evidence, however, we also deal with a lot of emotional aspect. It could be a small scale murder, a mass shooting or another type of violent crime Despite the name though, crime scene cleanup is only part of the job. We also clean up after suicides and accidents, and needless to say we witness a lot of emotion. Our main goal while it certainly involves clean and sanitizing and the prevention of potentially harmful diseases, it all comes down to one simple but vital service to the company. We restore normalcy. Needless to say crime scene clean up has to be thorough. Once we leave the place should look nothing ever happen. While the memory will still linger, with our help it can at least settle back to normal, or as normal as things can be after such tragedies.
So where does a service like this come in? Who needs it and who uses it? Despite what the popular conception might be we don’t work only with the police. In fact when a tragedy occurs whether it’s a mass shooting, an accident or a suicide, it often falls on the shoulders of the victim’s or victims’ family to clean up after the mess. Needless to say the family is already suffering a tragedy and needs their time to grieve. Asking them to clean up the mess is not a far cry from asking them to relive the tragedy, and before they’ve had a chance to recover. But what are some things that might be expected from a crime scene clean up worker? Well needless to say there’s a lot of blood clean up, bodily fluid removals, etc. We have to be thorough by not just removing the obvious, but even the unseen mess that could lead to infectious diseases down the road. So here’s some of the work that goes into it.
Blood Cleanup
So we’ve talked a little bit about blood cleanup already, and it’s the obvious one that people usually think of when they think of the work of a company like this one. Even the smallest blood stained that may be left on a carpet could indicate a massive unseen bloodstain. This would especially be true of a mass shooting, but in the case of any violent death there’s going to be a lot of blood, even if it’s no longer visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately just scrubbing a bit of bleach to remove the evidence won’t be enough. You have to have a special licenses to remove bio hazards and bodily fluids not to mention special training. Last but not least you need the stomach to do it. We have all three so we help clients skip the extra steps.
Structural Cleanup
Some of the tougher jobs, say cleaning up after a , require far more than cleaning. In some cases large physical structures may require removal. This includes structures that may be built into the home or building, so unless you have a hefty construction background and a crew to help with the labor it can be an arduous task. This is where a crime scene clean up company can come in handy.
Fluid and Smell Removal
What a lot of people don’t know is that blood isn’t the only thing to clean up. While things like mass shootings can definitely leave a mess, it’s actually the more private deaths that leave a very big mess. In the case of unattended death, say a private murder, an accident, even a suicide, are often messier than the more obvious ones. This is because everything is left to rot and fester. Needless to say crime scene up becomes a lot more unpleasant when bodies sit to fester. What you may not know also is that sometimes when a person dies their bowels release and other bodily fluid behind mere blood cleanup can be found at that the scene. Most people don’t have the stomach for this and shouldn’t have to after a tragedy, this is where a professional crime scene clean up comes in.
In addition the skills and knowledge needed to do that job we also have equipment. This often expensive, but very necessary equipment can include many vital pieces to a very important suit our workers have to wear. It’s a one-time use suit along with gloves and boots specially designed for chemical spills as well as filtered respirator that help protect from the toxins in the air. We also carry heavy duty bags specially designed to carry seal in unwanted material to be disposed of. Of course you can expect to see all the traditional clean up materials any cleaning service would use, at a somewhat higher grade and formulated for crime scene cleanup of course.
Some of the more specialized clean up equipment can be much more complicated and expensive. We carry disinfectants for blood cleanup and other clean up that are hospital grade and ozone machines to remove the odors. Putty knives are used to scrape brain matter. When brain matter dies and is no longer able to be removed by the knife we use heavy steam machines melt the matter and make it removable. For some of the more disgusting jobs we can implement no-touch methods for cleaning after a mass shooting or a messy death, such as advanced sprays and industrial grade deodorizers and disinfectants. foggers are often used to enhance our cleaners and help them get into tough spots. That’s not all the tools we use, but as you can see there’s a lot of advanced gear to keep track of but it’s all necessary for the job.
In addition to cleaning up after a tragedy our main goal is to restore normalcy to the lives of those affected. It doesn’t matter if the job as small one man’s simple accident, or a tragic mass shooting. We strive to help the victims left alive to be affected and changed forever to at least go back to a semi-normal life. That’s never an easy thing to do, but it can certainly help have some assistance in the unpleasant clean-up process that comes afterwards.
