Mobile Ala. Feb 24 2008 The teenage boy's life had ended abruptly with a single shot, a self- inflicted death of which the remains -- the dense, dull red liquid and bits of brain matter -- laid in wait for Jessica Townsend to clear away.
Blood had soaked the queen-size, pillow-top mattress; it had dripped down the bed frame and onto the floor, staining the carpet.
Her hands guarded by gloves as thick as two nickels, industrial rubber boots on her feet, Townsend lifted the bed linens and slid them into cardboard biohazard packages, careful to contain the blood that had pooled on the sheets.
She cut away the soiled carpet with a carpenter's razor. She scrubbed the bed frame and the wall.
The family wept on the other side of the door, and Townsend remembered three years later feeling frightened at the thought of speaking to them.
"How would I console them? What would I say?" she recalled.
But, she said, "I took a deep breath, opened the door and informed the parents I was finished."
She also left her business card. It reads "Gulf Coast Bio Clean, cleaning with compassion" after "trauma, homicide, suicide, decomposition."
It was the first crime scene Townsend attempted to make like new. More than 50 others have followed.
Townsend, 33, an unassuming woman who speaks in a matter-of-fact tone, said her job has gotten easier as time has passed.
"When you're scrubbing and everything else, you're not thinking it's someone's loved one's blood. You're thinking, 'Oh, I need to get that area next,' or 'I need to do this,' or 'I need to take that wall out.' You're not thinking it's blood," she said.
"And when it's all done, you know, you feel for the families. You think about the person. You walk into these people's houses, and the person you're cleaning up, their picture is on the mantel."
Crime scene cleaning -- an industry less than 15 years old -- remains largely unknown to the public.
People often assume that law enforcement will clean up after examining a crime scene, but that's wrong.
Law enforcement takes only what it can use. The rest, according to Kate Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, is left for family members or property owners to deal with.
"It's a hard reality for these folks because they're already traumatized," explained Gordy Powell, vice president of the American Bio-Recovery Association, a nonprofit agency that regulates and trains crime scene cleaners. Townsend's company is the only one in Alabama with ABRA certification.
According to Johnson, the Sheriff's Office recommends Gulf Coast Bio Clean, one of at least two such companies in the Mobile area.
Townsend said that she and her five employees have been trained to handle biohazardous waste, including blood that may be HIV-positive, and how to dispose of it properly.
All must have updated hepatitis B shots and tetanus shots, and undergo yearly physicals. And all are
screened so that Townsend can weed out "adrenaline junkies," she said.
If applicants have no experience in the medical profession, Townsend added in an e-mail, "that shows me they have not had a previous motivation to help others" and lack "the stomach to handle most of the situations we have to deal with."
The employees work for Townsend on an on-call basis, she said, and have other jobs.
On a recent day, Townsend and employee Tony Rensa cleaned up at a home where a man had sat dead in his chair for three days. They knocked down a counter, dismantled a recliner, and cleaned and sealed a cement floor.
"You just have to follow the blood wherever it goes, and you only stop when you don't see any more," said Townsend, wielding a hammer in her slender hands with their French-manicured nails to pound away at the counter's baseboard.
She said later, "I never thought I would be so handy."
Townsend declined to say how much she charges for her company's services. Powell said ABRA-certified companies can charge up to $250 per hour for services.
One of Townsend's clients described a five-figure bill that she said was well worth the money.
Not just blood
"It was just rubble like you wouldn't believe," Lynn Smith said of the Daphne rental home she owns.
Her tenants, she said, were drug abusers who had apparently been making crack cocaine. In fact, they had used so many needles -- and in so many rooms -- that Townsend found needles in the attic's insulation.
Smith said, "When you looked at it, you'd just say it would be easier to drop a bomb on it to clean it out."
The two-day cleaning job cost $19,000, she said.
Townsend recalled that cleaning job, hunting for the remnants of drugs, as exhausting. "You actually go in and wash all the walls. You wash every inch of that house," she said.
Smith, who is also an insurance agent, said her property policy covered the cost of the cleanup, which many policies do. Townsend said that's a helpful selling point for her.
"This is a hard business to market," Townsend said. "You can't tastefully put a television ad or radio ad out letting people know you are here. They don't want to hear about suicides or murders over their Cheerios in the morning."
Certification Is Available
Cleaning company owners seeking certification from the American Bio-Recovery Association must complete several tasks.
They include attending a four-day training course at one of three sites and passing a written test, said Gordy Powell, vice president of the Ipswich, Mass.-based ABRA.
Crime and Death Scene Cleaning in Ipswich; the National Institute of Decontamination Specialists in Greenville, S.C.; and Trauma Scene Services in Norwalk, Ohio, administer the course, Powell said.
The course addresses chemistry, microbiology, personal protective equipment, Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, and business and industry ethics, he said.
The nonprofit ABRA was formed by emergency workers to provide some sort of industry standard for companies involved in crime scene cleaning.
ABRA certification is not required by government regulation, however.
According to ABRA, its 87 nationally certified companies can charge a standard price of up to $250 per hour for their cleaning services, not including lab tests and hazardous-waste disposal fees, which may cost thousands of dollars.
Powell, who runs a crime scene cleaning company himself, said he pays his certified employees $35 an hour, while his supervisors get $45 an hour.
Under ABRA policy, certified companies must have formal plans on how to handle chemical spills and protect employees from blood-borne pathogens.
Also, employees must undergo lung testing to "see if they can handle the stress of a respirator," Powell said.
Blood had soaked the queen-size, pillow-top mattress; it had dripped down the bed frame and onto the floor, staining the carpet.
Her hands guarded by gloves as thick as two nickels, industrial rubber boots on her feet, Townsend lifted the bed linens and slid them into cardboard biohazard packages, careful to contain the blood that had pooled on the sheets.
She cut away the soiled carpet with a carpenter's razor. She scrubbed the bed frame and the wall.
The family wept on the other side of the door, and Townsend remembered three years later feeling frightened at the thought of speaking to them.
"How would I console them? What would I say?" she recalled.
But, she said, "I took a deep breath, opened the door and informed the parents I was finished."
She also left her business card. It reads "Gulf Coast Bio Clean, cleaning with compassion" after "trauma, homicide, suicide, decomposition."
It was the first crime scene Townsend attempted to make like new. More than 50 others have followed.
Townsend, 33, an unassuming woman who speaks in a matter-of-fact tone, said her job has gotten easier as time has passed.
"When you're scrubbing and everything else, you're not thinking it's someone's loved one's blood. You're thinking, 'Oh, I need to get that area next,' or 'I need to do this,' or 'I need to take that wall out.' You're not thinking it's blood," she said.
"And when it's all done, you know, you feel for the families. You think about the person. You walk into these people's houses, and the person you're cleaning up, their picture is on the mantel."
Crime scene cleaning -- an industry less than 15 years old -- remains largely unknown to the public.
People often assume that law enforcement will clean up after examining a crime scene, but that's wrong.
Law enforcement takes only what it can use. The rest, according to Kate Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, is left for family members or property owners to deal with.
"It's a hard reality for these folks because they're already traumatized," explained Gordy Powell, vice president of the American Bio-Recovery Association, a nonprofit agency that regulates and trains crime scene cleaners. Townsend's company is the only one in Alabama with ABRA certification.
According to Johnson, the Sheriff's Office recommends Gulf Coast Bio Clean, one of at least two such companies in the Mobile area.
Townsend said that she and her five employees have been trained to handle biohazardous waste, including blood that may be HIV-positive, and how to dispose of it properly.
All must have updated hepatitis B shots and tetanus shots, and undergo yearly physicals. And all are
screened so that Townsend can weed out "adrenaline junkies," she said.
If applicants have no experience in the medical profession, Townsend added in an e-mail, "that shows me they have not had a previous motivation to help others" and lack "the stomach to handle most of the situations we have to deal with."
The employees work for Townsend on an on-call basis, she said, and have other jobs.
On a recent day, Townsend and employee Tony Rensa cleaned up at a home where a man had sat dead in his chair for three days. They knocked down a counter, dismantled a recliner, and cleaned and sealed a cement floor.
"You just have to follow the blood wherever it goes, and you only stop when you don't see any more," said Townsend, wielding a hammer in her slender hands with their French-manicured nails to pound away at the counter's baseboard.
She said later, "I never thought I would be so handy."
Townsend declined to say how much she charges for her company's services. Powell said ABRA-certified companies can charge up to $250 per hour for services.
One of Townsend's clients described a five-figure bill that she said was well worth the money.
Not just blood
"It was just rubble like you wouldn't believe," Lynn Smith said of the Daphne rental home she owns.
Her tenants, she said, were drug abusers who had apparently been making crack cocaine. In fact, they had used so many needles -- and in so many rooms -- that Townsend found needles in the attic's insulation.
Smith said, "When you looked at it, you'd just say it would be easier to drop a bomb on it to clean it out."
The two-day cleaning job cost $19,000, she said.
Townsend recalled that cleaning job, hunting for the remnants of drugs, as exhausting. "You actually go in and wash all the walls. You wash every inch of that house," she said.
Smith, who is also an insurance agent, said her property policy covered the cost of the cleanup, which many policies do. Townsend said that's a helpful selling point for her.
"This is a hard business to market," Townsend said. "You can't tastefully put a television ad or radio ad out letting people know you are here. They don't want to hear about suicides or murders over their Cheerios in the morning."
Certification Is Available
Cleaning company owners seeking certification from the American Bio-Recovery Association must complete several tasks.
They include attending a four-day training course at one of three sites and passing a written test, said Gordy Powell, vice president of the Ipswich, Mass.-based ABRA.
Crime and Death Scene Cleaning in Ipswich; the National Institute of Decontamination Specialists in Greenville, S.C.; and Trauma Scene Services in Norwalk, Ohio, administer the course, Powell said.
The course addresses chemistry, microbiology, personal protective equipment, Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, and business and industry ethics, he said.
The nonprofit ABRA was formed by emergency workers to provide some sort of industry standard for companies involved in crime scene cleaning.
ABRA certification is not required by government regulation, however.
According to ABRA, its 87 nationally certified companies can charge a standard price of up to $250 per hour for their cleaning services, not including lab tests and hazardous-waste disposal fees, which may cost thousands of dollars.
Powell, who runs a crime scene cleaning company himself, said he pays his certified employees $35 an hour, while his supervisors get $45 an hour.
Under ABRA policy, certified companies must have formal plans on how to handle chemical spills and protect employees from blood-borne pathogens.
Also, employees must undergo lung testing to "see if they can handle the stress of a respirator," Powell said.
EMAIL US! Send news, comments or questions….. adminassist@privateofficer.com
COME SEE OUR NEW WEBSITE!! NOW YOU CAN ADVERTISE THERE CHEAP!!
http://www.privateofficer.com/
VISIT US AT MYSPACE.COM/privateofficernews
COME BE PART OF THIS EXCITING COMMUNITY!
SHOP ON LINE 1200 STORES AND GET PAID!~~~~REALLY! CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.mypowermall.com/Biz/Home/108089
COME SEE OUR NEW WEBSITE!! NOW YOU CAN ADVERTISE THERE CHEAP!!
http://www.privateofficer.com/
VISIT US AT MYSPACE.COM/privateofficernews
COME BE PART OF THIS EXCITING COMMUNITY!
SHOP ON LINE 1200 STORES AND GET PAID!~~~~REALLY! CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.mypowermall.com/Biz/Home/108089
5 comments:
ABRA is an organization that was only formed to promote the board members' For-Profit companies.
ABRA requires that you take their approved training. Guess who provides the training?
You guessed it-only their board members.
The ABRA approve training costs about $1500.00-$2000.00.
ABRA is NOT recognized by any governmental agency.
ABRA is all about the board members making money off this so-called non profit association.
I have done a lot of research into this subject and ABRA has done more to assure the safety of the public as well as its members than any other organization. Yes they charge for training, as does the state, safety companies, local colleges, technical schools, and places that offer continuing education classes..... dummy. Do you honestly think it doesn't take money to train people? Go back to bed, try again tomorrow. Next time, DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
The Code of Ethics for any legitimate non-profit organization requires that board members cannot individually profit from their relationship with the non-profit.
You might want to learn about legitimate non-profits not ones created to benefit the for-profit companies owned by its board members.
And this statement, “...state, safety companies, local colleges, technical schools, and places that offer continuing education classes...” just shows your lack of knowledge about the standards that non-profits are held to. Any state, safety company, local college, technical school, and place that offers continuing education classes at a price are not non-profits.
ABRA has done nothing in its history except make money for its board members for-profit companies and blow smoke up the public’s ass.
Remember "The Emperor's New Clothes?"
Remember IRAQ’s WMDs?
The section below came from this link if you would like to learn more about conflict of interest with non-profit board members.
http://www.pano.org/standards/standardscode.php#III.%20CONFLICT%20OF%20INTEREST
III. CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Charitable nonprofit board and staff members should act in the best interest of the organization, rather than in the furtherance of personal interests or the interests of third parties. A charitable nonprofit should have policies in place and should routinely and systematically implement those policies to prevent actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest.
A. Conflict of Interest Policy
(1) Charitable nonprofits should have a written conflict of interest policy. The policy should be applicable to board members, staff and volunteers who have significant independent decision making authority regarding the resources of the organization. The policy should identify the types of conduct or transactions that raise conflict of interest concerns, should set forth procedures for disclosure of actual or potential conflicts, and should provide for review of individual transactions by the uninvolved members of the board of directors.
B. Conflict of Interest Statements
(1) Charitable nonprofits should provide board members, staff, volunteers and others who have significant independent decision-making authority with a conflict of interest statement, which summarizes the key elements of the organization’s conflict of interest policy. The conflict of interest statement should provide space for the board member, employee or volunteer to disclose any known financial interest which the individual, or a member of the individual’s immediate family, has in any business entity which transacts business with the organization. The statement should be provided to and signed by board members, staff, and volunteers both at the time of the individual’s initial affiliation with the organization and at least annually thereafter.
ALSO:
Call the IRS at 1-877-829-5500 chose menu item # 4.
Ask them to verify ABRA’s exemption status using the info off of ABRA’s own web site is:
American Bio Recovery Association
PO Box 828
Ipswich, MA 01938
The IRS has NO records for them...next time do YOUR homework.
ALSO
Call ABRA and ask for a copy of their Certificate of Incorporation filed with the State of Delaware 09/02/1999. Item three states that they are a 501(c) (3).
You will not be able to verify that with the IRS at the number above because they are NOT a 501(c) (3).
Why did they file a fraudulent Certificate of Incorporation with the State of Delaware?
I don’t know.
ABRA has represented themselves as a 501(c) (3) since 1999 when in fact they are not.
ANYONE can verify that ABRA is not a 501(c) (3) non-profit by calling the IRS at the number listed above.
They are now scrambling to obtain an EIN to cover their tracks since I made these postings.
BUT GUESS WHAT?
They can’t cover their tracks about being a 501(c)(3) because that process that takes about a year and since they filed a fraudulent Certificate of Incorporation CLAIMING to be a 501(c)(3) when in fact they were not, the IRS WILL NEVER allow them to be a 501(c)(3). Remember this little thing called laws? I guess ABRA thinks laws don't apply to them.
But you know what? ABRA will never give you a copy of their Certificate of Incorporation. Why, because they have been deceiving everyone since 1999.
You can get a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation from the state of Delaware. There is a small charge for it. ABRA is hoping that no body will care enough to check it out.
Here’s the link:
http://corp.delaware.gov/onlinestatus.shtml
Post a Comment