Crime scene cleanup: A dirty job, but they do it

By Deborah Gates • Staff Writer • April 11, 2010

CAMBRIDGE -- If you're reading this story over
Sunday breakfast, you might want to set it aside for
later. Vance Morris's work at Chesapeake Service
Solutions Inc. could leave some people with a
queasy stomach.

Morris and his crew of technicians suit up to clean
up after tragedy strikes -- and human biohazards
are left behind.

"When somebody calls about a job, I have to ask, 'Is
somebody dead?' " Morris said, underscoring the
firm's focus on biohazard sanitation. "We've cleaned
up enough yucky stuff."

That can include spatters of blood, brains and even
human guts; somebody's gotta do it.

And since few do, Morris' CSSI has a niche in a
market where most cleaning services stick to routine
dusting, vacuuming and polishing.

"We suit up, wear respirators -- we're covered head
to toe," said Morris, who expanded his Cambridge-
based cleaning business to fill a void in the
domestic services industry. "We don't do windows;
we are not a house-cleaning company."

CSSI is among a handful of cleaning services
specializing in biohazard remediation, or the
cleaning of biologically contaminated environments.
Not all cleanups are at crime scenes; clients include
owners of properties where patients have
succumbed to contagious conditions such as forms
of hepatitis or AIDS -- and left traces of bodily
fluids. And they remove the stench that lingers from
decomposition when a victim is discovered days
after their death.

Det. Sgt. Rich Kaiser at the Salisbury Police
Department said the number of local specialized
biohazard cleaning services are so few that the
department keeps on hand contact information for a
company based in Harford County, more than 100
miles away -- Crime Scene Cleanup.

"This is a company ready to go if we need one,"
Kaiser said. "The company advertises through
training programs we do."

Typically, property owners take responsibility for
cleanup of a crime scene, a process that has its
risks, Kaiser said.

"In a gruesome scene with a lot of blood spatter,
usually it's contained to a hallway or a room," he
said. "But when you're dealing with blood, you don't
know if it's contaminated or not."


Proper disposal of contaminated waste is as critical
as proper cleanup. "The hard part is staying within
guidelines as to how to clean up, and knowing the
different equipment to be used," Kaiser said.
"Disposal is a whole new monster."

Morris points to waste company Culver Enterprises,
which transports and disposes of biomedical waste.

Morris started CSSI three years ago, focusing on
heavy-duty cleaning, but not biohazard materials --
not until he received an inquiry from an insurance
agent about cleaning a crime scene after a man was
stabbed.