Happy Holidays from Bio Scene Clean Up

Instead of posting a normal informational article this week, I wanted to take an opportunity to to personally thank everyone for their business, support and well wishes throughout 2013.Often in the rush of business we fail to take every opportunity to say "Thank You" to those that support our businesses. We value each and every one of you.

We are excited about many great things for 2014 and look forward to our continued relationships with our clients and viewers. We welcome interaction and the opportunity to communicate with everyone.


 If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate to submit a communication request or drop a comment.

Bio Scene Clean Up wishes everyone a Safe and Happy Holiday Season and wish each of you our blessing for a prosperous New Year in 2014. 

Marc Onesta - Owner 

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.

Top 3 questions to Tampa's Biohazard Clean Up Company

The most important thing in handling the crime scene clean up is that affected things should be cleaned in a way by which life will be danger free in future. It is imperative that one employs the help of the experienced bio hazard technicians who are certified and well trained to remove the fluid materials of body and blood or other bio-hazard materials.  Often there are various items such as walls, carpet, furniture, wallpaper, flooring, etc that will need to be disposed of in the red bio-hazard bags.  Disposal can usually be taken to a state-regulated and federal- regulated site. Laws do not permit the use of dumpster to dispose the items. According to the laws of federal and state, a bio-hazard clean up will need to store the records of the place where disposal is taken place and include what was disposed. It is suggested that these records be stored for 30 years. It’s also important that permits and certification information be retained for the same amount of time should they ever need to be reviewed. 

Why is trauma and crime scene clean up so dangerous? The cleanup process of a scene may be easy and simple. But, clean up technicians have to be trained in how to handle materials to avoid contact with deadly diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases that can be occurred by affection of bio-hazards. Frequently sharp items that can puncture your skin are found to be present during clean up. It’s also possible that a cleaner’s mouth and eyes can be affected accidently during the removal of biohazard items. 

Why should someone call a bio-hazard clean up company?  When it comes to cleaning and removal from a bio-hazard trauma scene, family members, friends or people associated want to clean the scene themselves. Seldom do they realize that the tasks are physically and emotionally overwhelming. BioScene Clean Up is trained in the removal of bio-hazard items such as body fluids, decomposing bodies, human tissues, hypodermic needles, blood, etc.  Our technicians are fully trained and certified in the removal of these materials and have been specifically trained to restore a scene to a better than original condition. Utilizing a trained professional company like BioScene Clean Up enables you to avoid the emotional distress of the work. Anyone attempting to clean a biohazard scene may also run the risk of certain liabilities should someone cleaning become exposed to harmful items and substances. BioScene Clean Up also provides disinfecting services to help restore scenes.

Who pays for bio-hazard and crime scene clean up? Depending on the circumstances and where the incident occurs, ordinarily the insurance company pays for the clean up. Every insurance carrier is different and certain restrictions may apply.  Anyone having to hire a professional clean up company should contact the insurance company to review these limitations; if any.

Tampa's compassionate suicide clean up services

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention statistics show that there are over 34,000 suicides in the United States every year. It is the third leading cause of death among young adults aged 15 to 28, and the fourth leading cause of death for those aged 18 to 65.

Those who have not experienced a suicide in the family, the needless loss of a sibling or child, cannot imagine the grief and pain the family suffers. Trying to clean such a tragic scene can be a hardship far beyond measure. While no one likes to think of their own home as a biohazard, in extreme circumstances it may be emotionally traumatizing or physically unwise to tackle a cleaning job by yourself.

After an accident, suicide or death occurs and the dead or injured have been taken away, it’s often companies like BioScene Clean Up that are brought in to clean up the scene. Frequently we are called to the home of a person who died alone and whose body wasn't found for weeks. Bioscene Clean Up provides clean up services dealing with blood, human decomposition, excrement and any other type of biological hazard.

Photo courtesy of AP

Our main objective is to remove all contaminated material from a home, business or automobile and restore it to a biologically safe state. Bioscene staff members arrive at a scene, assess the extent of the cleaning and then compose a plan of action and implement it. From start to finish, we are on site to complete the tasks, right down to ensuring removal of materials from the biohazard disposal unit.

With corporate offices St Petersburg, Florida we are able to serve the entire state with professional & compassionate suicide clean up services. Contact our staff today for a confidential assessment of how we can restore a scene for you. The grief is hard enough, with our professional services we are able to eliminate the additional pain for individuals associated with these types of traumatic events.

Who handles Trauma Scene Clean Up in Tampa, FL?

The police, fire and other rescue departments play a crucial part in handling the many tasks after a death or suicide. These crucial professionals however, do not clean up the trauma scene. Trauma-scene clean up is a niche market within the cleaning industry and many clean up steps following a trauma must adhere to strict regulations for handling decontamination and materials.


Special equipment, chemicals and materials are necessary when performing this type of clean up as it involves dangerous and most often contaminated materials that cannot be cleaned up using conventional house cleaning methods. Depending on the location of the trauma scene, different precautionary practices become applicable to ensure safety.



Some different types of Trauma Scene Clean Up can be:
• Death Clean Up (Resulting from death, accidents or a trauma such as murder)
• Suicide Clean Up
• Biohazard Clean Up (Clean up of blood and other hazardous wastes, meth labs and other chemically contaminated scenes)

BioScene Clean Up offers these cleaning services and more. With offices located in Tampa, FL and St. Petersburg, FL they are able to offer 24 hour and emergency services. Since families of crime and trauma victims typically do not leave the home after this occurs, our job is to remove any sign of what happened and any biohazardous materials that may be present from the incident. These biohazardous items are materials such as blood or tissues at a crime scene, bodily fluid removal and waste associated with the clean up.

It is definitely not advised for family members or friends of family to attempt cleaning these scenes. Often times with trauma and death scenes specifically, there are specific protocols that must be practiced in order to ensure the safety of yourself and others. Special permits are required for handling these materials and substances and intense training should be completed by the professional who performs the clean up. BioScene Clean Up is certified to performs these and many other types of clean up. For more information about what we do preview our SERVICES. We realize in the midst of these incidents that it’s a very difficult time for families and people associated with incidents. We are professions, compassionate and willing to help you restore these scenes to before incident conditions. CONTACT US for more information on how we can be of service to you.

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.

Why Hire a Crime Scene Cleaner? Reasons why you don't cleanup a crime scene

Well it seems so obvious that people-victims of crime would never cleanup a crime scene themselves, many do so anyways. We are not talking about a crime scene as being one like - spray painted graffiti on a wall or some teenage brats throwing eggs at your home, what we are speaking of are real crime scenes like; murder suicides, knife stabbings, beatings, assaults of horrific suffering. Scenes like the ones mentioned are when you need to hire a crime scene cleaner. It may seem so blatantly normal for a victim if they're still alive or their families to not even ponder the thought of cleaning up a crime scene that contains blood, fluids, tissues, with visual images of a violent struggle for survival - you would be wrong. Wrong in many ways that families of crime victims take the initiative of cleaning up a scene whether they want to or not, as being just another dirty area, like their kid's bedroom. We are not even talking about the dangers involved just the thought of cleaning up a crime struggle where someone you know or related to was brutally attacked or killed would make most people cringe and cower themselves away from the scene so as not to be involved. Before you think to volunteer or be the tough guy or gal and suck it up and go clean up the blood, think about your mental state of what your doing. You may be physically capable of mopping, scrubbing since you clean your home or car so well, that this blood mess aint no big deal, well you're wrong! Whether the victim lived or died, if you know the person, you will always remember that person by the scene you "cleaned up". Do you really want to remember your Aunt, Dad, Sister, Cousin or Jack the Neighbor as that blood stained couch or those bloody hand prints on the wall as he was attacked and killed in a home invasion? Even if the person lived through a crime-attack you as a relative or friend should not cleanup the scene, psychologically you memory of that person would be scorned for life.