The gruesome game of cleaning up

By JODI HAUSEN Chronicle Staff Writer

Cleaning up a crime scene is a dirty, filthy and potentially hazardous job, but someone has to do it. And in Bozeman there are at least two companies that do.

When Patty Burrows started her cleaning business about 11 years ago, she had no idea she’d be relying on clove oil and Vick’s VapoRub to mask the odors she encounters on her job. She began simply cleaning offices and homes.

But after finally convincing her sister, Bev Paquet, a paramedic from Michigan, to move to Montana, the two combined their interests to start White Glove Bio-Haz - a licensed cleaning service that specializes in mopping up buildings and vehicles after the unthinkable has occurred.

“I love cleaning,” Burrows said.

“I’ve always loved dissection,” Paquet said.

“And we both have strong stomachs, so we just decided to combine our talents,” Burrows said.

The two started the niche business this past fall.

In addition to crime and trauma scene cleanup, the sisters specialize in sanitizing “gross filth” - places where landlords find rental properties left in such nasty disarray that they don’t want to touch anything themselves, for example.

Ben and Gail Yanker, owners of Buffalo Restoration Inc., have been cleaning up trauma scenes since about 1990, Ben Yanker said. Their business actually started as Buffalo Painting in the mid-1970s and evolved to include architectural restoration. The trauma-cleaning business “just kind of flowed” into the mix in 1990, after a few employees were trained in hazardous cleanup. Now, four of the Yankers’ 14 employees have the skills and knowledge to tackle such tasks.

Staying safe in a gruesome environment

Both companies have specialized equipment and protective clothing they use when attacking the gore and grime, they said.

“You just don’t want to do it yourself,” Burrows said. “It’s a huge health risk.”

Blood and bodily fluids can transmit hepatitis, HIV and other life-threatening infectious diseases, the women with White Glove said.

“When we leave a scene, there’s no more blood, no more bodily fluids, no more odor,” Paquet said. “And odor is a big thing.”

That’s where the clove oil and Vick’s come in.

The women smear the aromatic salves under their noses to veil the stench they often encounter in their work - a long-proven preventive measure employed by medics, Paquet said.

Other gear includes power saws, heat guns, disinfectants, non-porous jumpsuits, facemasks and lots and lots of bright red trash bags - but no mops.

A mop won’t work with bio-hazardous materials, Paquet said.

“You either scrub it out or it (gets tossed) out,” she said.

Not like TV

It can be a challenge, Yanker agreed.

“You see these crime scenes on TV and you see a pool of blood,” he said.

But that’s rarely what a crime scene looks like.

“There’s a lot of energy that gets released” in shooting cases, for example, Yanker said. “It’s a complicated cleanup. If there was an open door, it can cover a lot of rooms.”

And how complex a job is drives the cost, both companies said. They charge by the hour, so the ghastlier the site, the more expensive a job tends to run.

So clean up can cost a property owner from $1,000 to tens of thousands, they said.

But most jobs are covered by insurance, they added.

It’s about helping

But what truly drives both companies to pursue such macabre work is a desire to help.

“It’s the satisfaction of leaving and hoping (our clients) like it as much as I do,” Burrows said. “I love that polished, pristine finished look.”

“Truly what drives us is wanting to help people,” Yanker said. “After a tragic incident, that’s probably the last thing (loved ones) want to do. We want to do it safely to protect the value of the home or structure but respect the memory of the deceased.”

Jodi Hausen can be reached at jhausen@dailychronicle.com or 582-2630.

If you need them:

White Glove Bio-Haz: 877-388-7305 or whiteglovebiohaz.com

Buffalo Restoration Inc.: 586-8109 or buffalorestoration.com