Murders or other forms of violent crimes carried out in a commercial facility can be devastating. Unfortunately, you cannot rely on a special unit from the police department to clean up a crime scene. Although some officers will tell you that they work with professional trauma cleanup services, it is your responsibility as a property owner to ensure that a facility is appropriately cleaned. The good news is that you can rely on trauma cleanup services to restore your property to its initial condition. However, it is only possible if cleanup services follow these critical steps.

Survey a Scene 

No matter how well you describe a trauma scene to cleanup services, you can never be entirely accurate. It is the reason why professional cleanup services conduct a careful and thorough survey of a location before doing anything. During the survey, cleanup staff try to identify all areas in a property affected by bodily fluid or organic matter. Through the assessment, service providers know the amount of the cleanup required. Cleanup staff will also remove anything not affected by organic matter to create room for cleaning. Once a survey is complete, the cleanup process can begin. 

Cleanup

When cleaning a trauma scene, a service provider's main objective is to reduce the chances of re-contaminating already-cleaned surfaces. Therefore, cleaning staff start with the ceiling and work their way down to the walls and eventually the floor. In the case of dried organic matter, cleanup services use a putty knife to scrape off the material from the surface. They might also need a shovel if there is significant organic material to remove. Once all dried organic matter has been scraped and scooped away, it is time to scrub and disinfect affected areas. Trauma cleanup services use mops, brushes, rags and scratch pads, and heavy-duty cleaning chemicals in this step. The supplies ensure that surfaces are thoroughly cleaned before being re-cleaned and disinfected using bleach and hydrogen peroxide.  

Deodorising

Although scraping, scrubbing, and disinfecting removes some of the smell, trauma cleanup services have to apply odour removal strategies. The first step is to adequately ventilate a property by opening up the windows once all surfaces are clean and dry. Trauma cleanup staff follow it up by applying industrial-grade deodorisers. Notably, deodorisers must be applied several times to remediate foul odour. However, the number of deodorisers used and frequency of application depend on how long a trauma scene remained unattended. 

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