Published 2/10/2012

I came upon a very interesting article earlier this week concerning crime scene cleanup.  The discussion centered on the emergence of a new industry that was relatively non-existent as little as two decades ago.  The clinical industry term, Bio Hazard Remediation, includes crime scene/trauma cleanup, hoarding, animal and fecal remains, human waste, industrial waste and blood borne pathogens.  While obviously not a pleasant subject, it has gone on to foster an entire industry around its cleanup and removal. 

While the article focuses on those that specialize in this work, many don’t realize it is a service offered by most restoration firms with emergency response.  Our sister company, FireStar, is our emergency response division and it responds to numerous bio hazard remediation calls annually.  FireStar works frequently with property managers, hotels and personal residences.  Mainly through these arenas, we have handled an array of bio hazard remediation situations from gunshot fatalities to hoarding to suicide.  

Working with property managers we have been exposed to quite a few situations involving hoarders. Most of these situations involve an extreme amount of clutter (sometimes from floor to ceiling) and it has caused or started to cause unsafe living conditions, including severe damage to the building structure. We are asked by the condominium property manager to remove the contents, repair any damage resulting from the clutter and clean the space. Our hotel clients bring us in on many cases where an individual has decided to end his/her life.  However, rather than leave the resulting mess in their homes for loved ones to clean up, they choose to carry it out elsewhere, usually a hotel room for others to clean. FireStar is called in to sanitize the space and repair any damage; and do so quickly so the room can be made available to other guests. Time, and in this case space, is money. 

Finally, a personal residence can sometimes be the worst.  As we all know people are different and live different lives, thus the degree of filth some are willing to endure is much higher than others.  FireStar has been called in on numerous occasions to cleanup animal waste and remains in people’s homes that have unfortunately gotten so out of hand it is no longer a safe living environment.  In some cases the parent company, Parker Young Construction has been required to elicit FireStars assistance to cleanup an area because it is unsafe for our employees to work in.

I grew up the funeral industry.  My family owned a small funeral home in a small town in Virginia.  As you can imagine, I have been exposed to several situations where bio hazard remediation was needed.  However, it being a small town in the early 1980’s, there were few if any bio hazard remediation firms around.  In these cases, the families of the deceased or local janitorial services were contacted for the unfortunate task of the cleanup.  It is no telling what dangers these individuals were exposed to while cleaning the affected areas; plus I am certain the spaces were not cleaned or sanitized to the specifications required by the government bio hazard standards of today.

With that said I invite you to take a look at the article link below.  If you have a predilection for the macabre and the unusual you will certainly enjoy this.  Take care and remember “while we can’t promise you sunny weather, we can promise to hold the umbrella for you when it rains.”

CNN:  New York Crime Clean-Ups On The Rise

Bryan S. Howell, CIC

Director of Business Development

FireStar & Parker Young Construction

1-888-303-9288

Published 1/23/2012

Welcome to the first entry of the weekly blog from Parker Young Construction and FireStar! Parker Young Construction is a comprehensive disaster restoration firm that, along with its sister company FireStar, a full-service disaster mitigation company, is located in Norcross, Georgia (Atlanta). We specialize in fire, water, wind, storm and mold mitigation and restoration.  When your home or business is damaged by one of these events we are the people you call to clean it up.  We also salvage, restore, clean and store contents of affected home or business until proper reconstruction efforts have been completed.  We have been in business since 1995 and have many satisfied clients.

Now that I have told you a little about who we are and what we do, I would like to share with you my thoughts on this blogs. I envision this blog to be a discussion on topics related to disaster/emergency response relative to current events. It is my intention to share with you changes in the industry, helpful information, captivating articles, feel good stories and topics, that quite simply, are weighing heavily on my mind at the time.  My hope is to keep it light, but raise your interest level by challenging you to see where our services fit into your everyday lives, making it better. Our industry is still emerging, and one few know about.

My goal is to change that.

I invite you to join me each week for a new entry and I hope you will be informed and able to walk away saying “huh I did not know that.”  In closing, I will tell you much like I tell many “while we cannot promise sunny weather, we can promise to hold an umbrella over you when it rains.”

Bryan S. Howell, CIC

Director of Business Development

Parker Young Construction & FireStar

1-888-303-9288

Published 2/2/2012

In the restoration business there are few things more important than responding to an emergency situation quickly and initiating proper mitigation techniques as soon as possible.  From a business interruption and reconstruction cost standpoint, this can make all the difference in the world.  Both FireStar and Parker Young Construction (PYC) have been called in to assist in many situations where improper emergency services/mitigation has resulted in much higher reconstruction costs, and extended the business’ down time. Here is an example where a poor response by a restoration company resulted in a large property claim and an even larger business interruption. 

The Grand Hotel in downtown Atlanta had a pipe burst on the 10th floor at 1 am on a Saturday morning.  Water was streaming into the floors below affecting 24 rooms before the facility manager could get the water shut off. Once the water was finally stopped, the manager called in a restoration firm that he had seen previously on television. Unfortunately, because it was the weekend and the mitigation company employee on call had his phone in another room, he never heard it ring. A voicemail was left, and 4 hours later, the on-call employee and a crew of three arrived at the scene.  Because of this delay, the water was not contained and seeped into other areas of the hotel, including the kitchen and furnace area, as well as the indoor swimming pool filter system and both elevator shafts.  The small crew of 4 discovered rather quickly that it was in way over its head in both logistics and lack of equipment.  However, the crew supervisor could not reach anyone else at the restoration company at 5 AM on a Saturday, so he decided to “make do” with the equipment available on the truck and collectively the crew did their best to dry the facility.  The group leaves the hotel late in the day on Saturday, hoping they were successful in completely drying out the rooms, though unsure because they did not have a Thermal Imaging Camera to detect moisture in concealed spaces. They promised to be back on Monday to make sure everything is dry.

On Monday morning, the insurance carrier for the hotel was called and told that the water restoration company completed its mitigation and everything was dry. The carrier assigned an adjuster who made an appointment for Tuesday at 9AM. Upon arrival, the adjuster immediately noticed that the carpet in the hall was still damp.  Using a moisture meter, he easily determines that the drywall was wet in numerous areas.  He is then informed by the hotel management that the elevator company was there the day before and found 3 feet of water in the shafts, and all the components of the elevator machinery were rusted. The replacement parts would take a week to get to the site. The pool filter system was also still wet and could not be started. It was further discovered that the entire kitchen duct system needed to be cleaned and dried to determine if it would even work again.  Removal of drywall in a few rooms revealed that the insulation in the outer walls was wet, there was still water sitting in the “c” channels at the base of the walls and mold had begun to grow. As a result of this damage, the hotel was forced to remain closed for 5 weeks which resulted in additional lost income from missed future bookings. 

As evidenced by the previous example, it is very important that you choose the right restoration firm to handle loss situations the first time.  It is good practice to establish a relationship with an organization (or two) prior to having a loss to be sure your needs can be met no matter the size or scope of damage.  A restoration firm should be judged on many criteria including the array of services offered, the size of the firm and its fleet, the type and wide range of equipment it uses, customer attentiveness, reviews and response time.  We believe it’s a good idea to also request a tour of the prospective restoration firm’s facilities before designating them as your emergency mitigation and reconstruction firm.  There is no better tool than personal interaction and the “eye test” when forming these opinions.  At FireStar and PYC we encourage prospective clients to complete their due diligence before entering into a Service Agreement with us.  We are confident their findings will make us the obvious choice as their restoration services provider.

Remember do your homework; and as I like to tell those we serve, “we cannot promise you sunny weather, but we can promise to hold the umbrella over you when it rains.”

Bryan S. Howell, CIC

Director of Business Development

FireStar & Parker Young Construction

1-888-303-9288