Biohazard Cleanup Company Blog | Bio SoCal

Oxford High Mass Shooting Cleanup

January 31, 2022 By Lorraine Lance

Mass Casualty Oxford High Shooting

Bio SoCal is one of the leading biohazard cleanup experts for mass casualty cleanup around the country.

Recently, the Detroit News spoke with Bio SoCal’s CEO, Alan Cohen, regarding the Oxford High School shooting. The shooting, which took place on November 30, 2021, claimed the lives of four students and injured several others in a small town just north of Detroit, Michigan.

Returning personal belongings takes time

Seeking information to help the victim’s family and survivors recover their belongings left at the school, the Detroit News reporter wanted people to understand why items couldn’t be picked up right away. Items such as mobile phones, backpacks, clothing, personal items, etc. can be very important to their owners but after a mass casualty event, returning belongings to the students can be slower than people would like. After a shooting such as the one that took place at Oxford High School, the building itself and personal belongings become, for a time, not just a place students go to learn, but a crime scene, and all items left are evidence. The careful and meticulous process to investigate a crime scene of this size and complexity and collect all relevant evidence is the priority above all else and so students and staff must wait to claim their property. In this case, it took two weeks before students could meet their teachers in the parking lot to reclaim their property.

Our CEO, Alan Cohen, explained it thus, “The police need to go through and figure out what is evidence before anything would be returned.” Only then, when investigators know what is important to discern what happened and what is not are items returned to the proper owners.

Bio SoCal understands mass casualty cleanup first-hand

Bio SoCal understands first-hand some of the additional complexities around returning personal belongings after a shooting. After the mass homicide in November 2018 at the Borderline Bar and Grill here in Thousand Oaks, California, Bio SoCal conducted the mass casualty cleanup after investigators released the scene back to the property owners.

Even if there is no visible sign of blood or other bodily fluids on an item, the belonging must still be cleaned of any invisible viruses or bacteria that may have landed on the item in microscopic blood droplets. Only when something has been sanitized and disinfected can it be safely returned to the owner. Going through each item and meticulously cleaning the belongings takes both time and professional biohazard and blood cleanup experts. Some items such as books or papers, must be legally disposed of as biohazard waste if infected with blood from the event. Porous materials such as these cannot be cleaned and are not safe to reuse.

As the students and staff return to the school this month and court cases around the shooting are making their way through the courts, our thoughts are with the families and friends of the four victims, all the injured, and all those affected by this tragedy.

Bio SoCal provides mass casualty cleanup 24/7

Available around the clock, our team at Bio SoCal is always here to help cleanup after any crime scene whether large or small. Experienced in what it takes to quickly and methodically conduct mass casualty cleanup in such a scene, we know how to handle multiple fatalities and to work with multiple response agencies in one effort to investigate the crime and restore the property.

If you have questions or need help restoring a property after a crime or mass casualty event, give us a call today and we’ll be happy to provide you with a free quote and consultation.

Murder Cleanup After The Stabbing of Rapper Drakeo The Ruler

January 14, 2022 By Alan Cohen

Rapper Drakeo the Ruler

Bio SoCal was backstage in Exposition Park after the Once Upon a Time in L.A. festival concert cleaning up after the stabbing and subsequent death of Drakeo the Ruler.

Stabbing of Drakeo the Ruler

While Drakeo the Ruler, a 28-year-old rapper whose real name was Darrell Wayne Campbell, was waiting to perform at the concert in downtown L.A., a fight broke out on the roadway backstage involving several people. During the altercation, Drakeo was stabbed in the neck. While police rushed to the scene and paramedics attended to the victim, Drakeo’s injuries were severe, and he died later the next day at a local hospital.

The festival itself went on just a little longer before concert organizers decided to cancel and it was announced the concert was ending early and everyone needed to leave. Investigators then completed their task of gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses before releasing the scene back to the property owners. Once the police were done, Bio SoCal was then called to come clean the roadway of all blood and body fluids to protect the public from any and all biohazards remaining after the crime. With experience cleaning crime scenes spanning from mass shootings to small spaces, Bio SoCal is the trusted crime scene cleaner throughout Southern California, and we are always willing to help at a moment’s notice.

Crime Scene Cleanup in L.A.

Tragedies such as the stabbing at the concert in L.A. are tragic events. When they happen, our team at Bio SoCal works hard to make sure the tragedy ends with the crime itself by thoroughly cleaning all blood, body fluids, investigative chemicals, and other biohazards such as tear gas and drug paraphernalia (if applicable). Once we ensure the harmful substances are removed from the scene and disposed of responsibly, we then sanitize and disinfect all the surfaces, nooks, and crannies, so no viruses or bacteria remain to infect another person or damage a building structure.

Compassionate Service Amid Tragedy

All our staff at Bio SoCal provide compassionate service to all those caught in the midst of tragedy such as a stabbing or homicide. Often in shock and reeling with grief for lost loved ones or overwhelmed with caring for victims as they recover, we treat every person with the utmost respect and kindness, understanding they are going through life-altering events. From gently answering any questions, working quickly with as little disruption as possible, to handling insurance claims, we strive to take as much weight off people’s shoulders as humanly possible by superior biohazard cleanup so people can concentrate on their own recovery, grief, and healing.

In the case of the concert stabbing, our team at Bio SoCal knew we needed to clean up the roadway and make it safe as quickly as possible, not only for the safety of the public, but for all the workers taking down the venue at the park. For us, cleaning an area after someone dies is also a sign of respect to the victims and, in this case, to Drakeo and his family. Just as our bodies deserve respect when we pass away, no one’s blood should be left on the ground uncared for. Our hearts hurt to know this young man’s life was taken in such a brutal way.

Drakeo leaves behind his family including his mother, brother, and a young son, friends, and many fans. Our deepest condolences to them all. May he rest in peace.

Call Us for Crime Scene Cleanup

If you have any questions or need us to restore your property after a crime, we are always here to help.

What Does a Dead Body Look Like After One Year?

December 29, 2021 By Lorraine Lance

Mummified Fetus
Around the world, archeologists discover burials where the body has deteriorated to varying degrees. Based on the remains of the body, usually just bones and teeth by the time the graves are discovered, archeologists can tell a lot about the person: age, gender, injuries, and sometimes even their social status depending on what is buried along with them. At other times, there is very little archeologists can discern due to the fact even the bones have dissolved due to acidic soil. Either way, most bodies leave clues of their existence even after long periods have passed.

In this day and age, especially here in Southern California, we deal with the bodies of most of our loved ones through cremation (burning the body) or burial in the ground. For those who are buried, if we, like the archeologists, were able to go back on the one-year anniversary of our loved one’s burial, to discover what remains still existed, what would we find? What could we tell about the person who passed away?

Body Decomposition

A body is designed to start decomposing directly after death occurs. Once the heart stops pumping blood and oxygen levels plummet, the bacteria inside a person’s digestive system starts feeding on body tissues. As cells break down, enzymes are released, quickening the process. Then, as the bacteria process these materials, they release gas, bloating the body, and creating new holes for other bacteria and insects to take hold and process more of the body’s tissues, muscles, tendons, and organs. Every piece of our body is broken down into new forms of energy and our bones are usually the longest lasting sign we once walked the earth.

The surrounding conditions

This process of decomposition to the point of only bones remaining can take place in as little as a couple of weeks to thousands of years depending on the surrounding conditions around the body while it decomposes. If a body is left out in the open air in easy access to scavengers and temperate weather, then a body is going to decompose in a matter of weeks. If the temperatures are hot, then a person’s skin may dry out before fully decomposing. If the temperature is extremely cold, then the decomposition process slows significantly. This is why morgues refrigerate bodies before burial or during a crime investigation.

However, most bodies are not left in the elements to decompose. Most people are placed in the ground after death to decompose back into the soil. How quickly this takes place depends on what the body is placed in when buried. A body simply wrapped in a linen cloth or shroud when buried, as is still done in many places around the world, will decompose faster than a body placed in an airtight casket surrounded by a cement barrier. The more barriers between the body and the soil around it, the decomposition process slows down significantly though it still occurs in much the same order. To help speed along the decomposition process in a casket, sometimes holes are drilled into the lid or spaces are left open so outside forces can get inside to break down the body.

Embalming

Embalming a body involves removing many of the organs and draining the blood before filling the cavities with chemical preservatives. This procedure does slow down the decomposition process enough to allow for an open casket funeral but does not stop the process. While the body may take longer to decompose it will, eventually, still become a pile of bones.

Seeing a body after one year

If you were able to view a body after one year of burial, you may see as little as the skeleton laid to rest in the soil or as much as the body still recognizable with all the clothes intact. Depending on what was done to the body before burial and in what condition it was buried in, the state of a decomposed body can vary greatly. In a cemetery, for instance, where bodies are buried in different ways and in different times, you could have two bodies in the same stage of decomposition buried ten years apart. For the most part, however, if a non-embalmed body was viewed one year after burial, it would already be significantly decomposed, the soft tissues gone, and only the bones and some other body parts remaining. If the body was embalmed before burial, there would still be moist material around the body from the decomposition of soft tissues and the body fat will be transforming into soap-like material as the moisture evaporates. In either case, the decomposition process is well on its way.

If an archeologist were to take a look after this one year mark, they could nearly always tell the age and gender of an individual, some injuries and medical conditions, and, sometimes, even quite a bit about them depending on the condition of any clothing, jewelry, or other personal objects the person was buried with.

Returning Energy

Imagining our own bodies decomposing one day can seem horrific but this is simply nature’s way of transforming all creatures who once lived back into the energy needed by new life. The bodies we live and breathe in today, however beautiful, are borrowed material from the earth to be returned when we no longer need them. It is actually quite an efficient process as life and death follow one after the other.

Let the professionals handle death cleanup

As natural as the decomposition process may be, for most people, our instinct is to stay away from a decomposing body. This is for good reason. The diseases that may have lain dormant or hidden away in our bodies in life are now free to spread unmitigated to those still living. The insects and other creatures that help the decomposition process can also spread disease and the odor of a decomposing body can be extremely foul. For all these reasons, it is important to only let those who are trained in cleaning up after a decomposing body do the work. No matter what stage the body was found in, rely on professional biohazard cleaners to clean all affected areas and remove any lingering odor.

Young Dolph Rapper Shot and Killed

December 13, 2021 By Alan Cohen

There are times when the crime scene cleanup work we do is quickly cleaned up and we don’t hear more about those involved. There are other times, however, when our work is part of a larger story and word gets back to us about what later happened to the victims. In this case, the news was tragic: Young Dolph, a rapper who has spent time here in L.A. was recently shot and murdered while buying cookies in Memphis, Tennessee.

Back in late September of 2017, Bio SoCal was called out to a large shoe store on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue for crime scene cleanup and disinfection. Young Dolph, a rapper whose real name was Adolph Robert Thornton Jr., had been shot next door in the driveway of the Lowes Hotel. He then stumbled into the shoe store bleeding profusely and with life-threatening injuries. The crime scene was significant, to say the least, and it was a miracle he survived. Bio SoCal meticulously cleaned up all the blood from the store then sanitized and disinfected all the surfaces so the business could safely reopen. As we do with all our crime scene cleanup tasks, our hearts hurt that such violence takes place in our community while we’re also proud to be there for businesses and other property owners to make sure they and their customers are safe from harm after a crime takes place.

Young Dolph Killed in Homicide in Memphis, Tennessee

In recent weeks, we learned that this young man had been shot at again and passed away from his injuries. At a bakery in Memphis, he often frequented to buy cookies for his mother, two men pulled up outside and shot Young Dolph through the glass door. Tragic and senseless, Dolph leaves behind two children and his long-time girlfriend. Our hearts hurt for this young family and for all those affected by this crime. May he rest in peace.

Compassionate Crime and Murder Scene Cleanup

While we know we can’t prevent homicides from occurring, each of our staff are here to help further tragedy from happening through improper cleanup of blood, bodily fluids, drug paraphernalia, and investigative chemicals after a murder has already occurred. If biohazards such as these are left behind after a crime takes place, building structures can be damaged, people can become sick or injured, and long-lasting foul odors can permeate the space. To make sure all biohazards are cleaned up properly and the area disinfected, it takes a skilled team of biohazard cleanup technicians.
Our experienced staff at Bio SoCal know all the places where biohazards may land after a crime takes place on your property and how to properly clean and disinfect the area so not even tiny trace amounts are left behind. With our team on the job, you know you’re in compassionate hands who care for the community by making sure your property is thoroughly restored after a crime and you and your loved ones are safe from further harm.

Licensed, bonded, and insured, Bio SoCal is the number one trusted crime scene cleanup company, and we regularly partner with first responders throughout Southern California. Whenever you need us, we are there to help.

Bio SoCal Saves a Man’s Life on the Freeway

November 18, 2021 By Alan Cohen

Bio SoCal Saves A Life Our team at Bio SoCal are passionate not only about cleaning up biohazards throughout Southern California after crimes, accidents, or when people pass away, but also about saving people still living whenever possible.

Just last week, Bio SoCal’s crew were honored to save a life on their way home from completing other jobs. After finishing the first day of a tear gas cleanup then a job cleaning up after a gunshot suicide, our crew was on the way home around 10:30 p.m. when they came across a work truck stopped in the freeway’s carpool lane. Putting on their hazard lights before getting out to check on the driver of the work truck, they discovered the man was in the seat unconscious, not breathing and with no pulse. Pulling the gentleman out of the vehicle, the team started CPR while another member called 911. By the time the California Highway Patrol executed a traffic break and the paramedics arrived, the gentleman was once again breathing, and his heart had resumed beating.

We are so honored to have been in the right place at the right time to help someone in dire need. Unfortunately, we didn’t exchange names with the officers or get the man’s name whom we helped. We wished we had as we don’t know what had happened to him or what happened after we left. It is our hope this man is now safe at home with his family and friends, enjoying the gift of life we are each given.

Become CPR & First Aid Certified

One of the best things you can do for your family, friends, and the wider community around you is to become certified in CPR and first aid. Knowing how to help someone who isn’t breathing, whose heart has stopped, or who has been injured can easily mean the difference between a person living to see tomorrow or passing away today. Like our crew driving home after work, you never know when you’re going to come across a situation needing these skills or have a friend or family member who could live if someone with CPR skills is nearby.

The Red Cross is a wonderful organization that offers classes throughout Southern California. With both online and in-person training options, you can gain all the skills you need to be there for someone else, helping them hold onto life until paramedics arrive.

Serving Others Throughout Southern California

Normally, our team comes to a property after a person has already been injured or passed away. We go in order that further tragedy doesn’t happen due to hazards remaining in the area such as blood, drug paraphernalia, or other body fluids. We are proud of what we do: helping all people throughout Southern California in this way. This time, though, it was wonderful to be able to prevent a tragedy before it happened. This time, we were able to go home knowing a fellow human being likely also got to go home to their loved ones when the outcome could have been very different.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you.

« Previous Page
1
…
3
4
5
6
7
…
22
Next Page »