The Fun & Dangerous Mix of Spring Break in Florida

For decades spring break has been a huge draw to the Florida beaches where we see miles of college students (and some old timers) in a full blown drunken party mode that lasts for days. The question like with whether Spring Break is safe or actually too dangerous for most that attend?

Reality shows like MTV and other popular media glamorize the whole phenomenon of spring breakers to increase ratings and of course profit margins. But, the reality is Spring Break is a time of increased sexually transmitted diseases, drugs and binge drinking that leads to many young people dying each year.

Bio Scene Clean Up services receives numerous calls each year during the spring break season to provide biohazard clean up services.  We’ve been employed to clean up trashed hotel rooms filled with urine, feces, blood and the remains of drugs and other biohazards from local hotels, private rental residences and even public law enforcement vehicle clean up services have been requested.

We specialize in the cleanup, blood, death & suicide scenes and other biohazard related to these types of ongoing parties that happen nationwide each spring. Over the past several years we’ve seen a steady increase in calls for our services and it doesn’t appear that it will lessen anytime soon.

Statistics show that it is common for guys to have in excess of 18 alcoholic drinks and girls in excess of 10 in short periods of time.  These types of drinkers are the typical candidates for unprotected sex, sexually transmitted diseases, drug overdoses and even crime and death scenes.  This poses the question of safety versus the fun times that the media portrays.

If you own a commercial or residential property that is rented during spring break in Florida contact our office to learn more about the services that we provide and we can help with your biohazard incidents that you may experience from your renters and guests. Our goal is to promote clean, safe environments for our Florida residents.

January is National Stalking Awareness Month

Ordinarily, we post information regarding our services and how we assist in clean up of death, trauma, suicides and more.  This week it's important that we notice that "Stalking" is a crime and more frequently ending in tragic situations that require our services.

We wanted to share some information from Victims of Crime.org that give you an overview of the support that these great organizations offer to victims and their families.  Organizations like these offer various types of assistance to victims and those in need, ranging from support groups, financial assistance for clean up of crime and death scenes to preventative information that brings awareness to our communities.

Help for Crime Victims

The National Center for Victims of Crime has a number of resources available to assist victims of crime. Our new Connect Directory provides contact information for victim service providers throughout the country. (Please note that the National Center's Crime Victim Helpline (800-FYI-CALL) is no longer in service).

Connect Directory

The National Center's Connect Directory provides a fast and easy way for victims to locate service providers specializing in specific areas of victimization in a wide variety of jurisdictions throughout the country. Users enter information into a simple form which is used to pull up contact information for service providers nearby who can help.

Get Help Bulletins

GetHelp Bulletins provide information on a wide range of topics, including the impact of crime, victims' rights, and the criminal and civil justice processes. The bulletins also include resources for victims, their families, and friends.

Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), provides an online directory of Victim Services throughout the country. OVC also provides information about victim assistance and compensation programs available in communities around the country.

Additional Resources

Go to the helpful links section of our resource library for other Web sites offering crime and victimization information.

Civil Litigation

The National Crime Victim Bar Association is a network of attorneys and allied professionals dedicated to facilitating civil actions brought by crime victims. Crime victims may be able to file civil lawsuits against perpetrators and responsible third parties for the damages the victims suffered as a result of the crime.


Death and Trauma Scene clean up is an emotionally draining task and something we wish our clients didn't have to experience. It's our goal to help ease the emotional distress by providing professional, compassionate services that are performed by trained technicians. We're available to immediate cleaning and restoration processes immediately after an incident and are dedicated to returning scenes that we clean to a pre-incident condition that is safe and sanitary.

If you find yourself or someone you know needing our services, please Contact Us immediately and we'll dispatch a technical crew to assist you with the details. 

What to do when you discover an unattended death

An unattended death can create a very problematic scene for medical professionals, police and even death clean up services like BioScene Clean Up.  It’s important to know that there is so much more to this type of scene than just removal of the body.

An unattended and / or decomposing body leaves not only visual, but microscopic trace elements of dangerous contaminants that can potentially be harmful, if not fatal to someone who comes in contact with them.  In these types of scenes you’ll frequently see a visual evidence of blood, tissue and other body fluids. Make no mistake, the visual evidence of these elements is on the surface.  While a thorough cleaning is needed it’s often necessary to remove certain components from the scene such as floor coverings, sub-floors, walls and other affected areas in order to remediate the scene to a pre-incident, safe condition.

Handling this type of death scene requires a company that has extensive training in the proper procedures for death clean up, the use of OSHA approved chemicals and proper removal protocols of the scene’s debris.  

To ensure your safety and that proper protocol is followed we never suggest attempting to clean a death scene yourself.  BioScene Clean Up is familiar with insurances processes and in most cases, insurance policies cover the costs of our services.

Here’s a simple list to follow if you discover an unattended death:

1. Call the police to report what you found and wait for their arrival.  Make certain that you obtain a business card from the investigating officer, you’ll need this information in the future.

 2. When the coroner is contacted also make certain that you obtain a business card from this individual as well.

3. Call Bio Scene Clean Up at 813-252-0796 so we can schedule and dispatch a technician. The longer you delay in clean up. Depending on the length of time of death or state of decomposition, will determine the amount of time needed to restore the scene to a safe condition for you.

4. Please do not enter the scene and attempt to collect items. This will most likely lead to your becoming more traumatized than you may already be. A professional can retrieve items for you.

5. If you know the name of the insurance company and/or policy number, please have this information available if it is readily accessible. This will enable our technicians to reach out to you’re the insurance company and provide any information needed.

6. If you are not the property owner, business you’ll be asked to provide that information. In most cases a "Permission to Enter" form must be executed prior to the clean up process beginning.

7. DO NOT attempt to clean any areas of the scene. Contact with biohazards, such as blood and fluids, may expose you to risks that could result in death or serious illnesses. We are trained professionals skilled in restoring the environment to safe conditions for you.

Why employ professional clean up for unattended death scenes?

Any time someone dies it can be a difficult and emotional time. It’s even harder if the body was unattended at the time of death as it only adds complication and trauma to the situation.  If you happen to be the unfortunate one to discover the death, it’s important to know that you need a professional bio-hazard cleaning service.

Unattended death can be a very hazardous situation.  Most often times the scene contains urine, feces, blood and other bodily fluids and all are in a state of decomposition.  This poses an extreme risk of exposure to infectious diseases and individuals who are not properly trained can be exposed to infectious diseases.  Decomposing body fluids can contain germs, active disease and bacteria for a  very long time.  Even if an untrained cleaner wasn’t exposed to these elements, the EPA and OSHA have strict regulations on the cleaning and disposal of these types of bio-hazardous materials.  

It is also common for the scene of an unattended death to have extreme odors that will remain even after removing the body.  These odors cannot be extinguished by ordinary household cleaners. These household cleaners will mask the odor temporarily only for them to return a few hours later. BioScene Clean Up utilizes equipment to permanently remove these odors from effected materials. The chemicals we use are designed to neutralize odors at the molecular level so they won’t return.  We are also dedicated to ensuring the safety of anyone associated with this type of scene.  We cannot stress how important it is to hire a professional bio-hazard clean up company to perform this work.  

 BioScene Clean Up is fully equipped to handle unattended death clean up scenes. We maintain the equipment and advanced training to properly handle the scene of an unattended death.  Our cleaning technicians are professional and have the utmost compassion when dealing with the details of these tasks. We understand what a difficult time it is and work efficiently to clean and restore a home to its original state.  BioScene Clean Up also offers additional services that can assist you in cleaning debris, clutter and other items from these scenes.  Please see our services and certifications section for more details.

7 Tips your Neighbor Might be Dead, Written by a Death Scene Cleaner

As the title states this one-sided non-scientific post by me, a death scene cleaner on tips your neighbor might be dead is intended to be both educational and informative. As a cleaner of death scenes you see and hear many things, and sometimes what you see and hear are shocking like; finding out how long the tenant or homeowner has been deceased, decomposing in their home for days, weeks and yes - even months. At times neighbors of the deceased, as well as family members or friends will often repeat this same phrase “I had no idea he/she been deceased for so long”, and the signs are so obvious that people don’t recognize them. With all the crime scene, forensic shows on TV where victims are found dead in apartments or homes due to crime or death scenes you would think neighbors would be more keen to identify signs of trouble, well you would be wrong as the tips I will demonstrate are so obvious yet so oblivious to most.

Tip 1. You haven’t seen your neighbor in a while
They may just be avoiding you, a recluse or introvert, or they could be dead if you have not seen your neighbor in a while. Sounds pretty obvious, right?

Tip 2. No response from phone calls, emails, etc
This tip could be used by anyone, but for the sake of this post we will use – neighbors. If your neighbor has not answered the phone, or returned any of your messages, texts, emails, etc that you have left for them, there is a good chance they either do not want to talk to you or are dead.

Tip 3. Numerous newspapers left in the yard or at the door step of residence
Yes, I know how could anyone not notice a stack of Sunday papers left on the doormat? If you ever notice a couple newspapers left out in the front yard of your neighbor’s place and they are not out of town, you might want to check on them, especially if they are elderly or have medical conditions. A bunch of daily newspapers or worse Sunday papers are a tip your neighbor might be dead.

Tip 4. Advertisements/solicitations attached to front door
These are the pizza brochures, pamphlets walk-around solicitors place in your door or around the door knob. If there’s a lot of them on or around the main entrance to the property there is a good chance the occupant might be dead if they are not out of town.

Tip 5. Flies in windows of home
We are now stepping it up a notch where the tips your neighbor might be dead may only be visible to close proximity neighbors such at a condo or apartment complex where other residents walk by neighboring residences down a hall or pass on foot in front of other homes. We are not speaking of a fly or two, more like seeing 10-50 flies in the windows. Some flies may mean the trash needs to be emptied, lots of flies in a home may mean your neighbor is dead.

Tip 6. An awful smell emanating from the residence
This is when it gets nasty – if there is an odor so horrible it makes you gag when you pass by or go near the door, there is a good chance the occupant of that home may be dead. What you smell is the odor of a decomposing body and the smells are so noticeable, almost like the smell of a road-kill animal on the side of the road. I have been to apartments where the tenant was not found for weeks and the odor could be smelled from outside the apartment building, but neighbors living across the hall of their decomposing neighbor never recognized that there could be an issue with it.

Tip 7. You see police cars and a van that says coroner on it, in front of your neighbor’s home
Yes, I have been on death scenes where a nosey neighbor comes over to talk to me and asks “Do you know if so and so is ok?” how would you respond?

The above tips are just a few simple, yet extremely important key points of identifying potential trouble at a neighbor’s home. Put down your smart phone and remove your ear plugs and pay attention to your surroundings, you may one day help someone that needs it.