Stavros started out with one
employee and a truck. But it
didn’t take long for his business
to grow.
“I saw a flux in the first year
and a half when I was doing it,”
he said.
“So there’s classes and onsite
training that they must go
through,” Anthony Wilson,
operations manager, said.
Stavros is insistent that his
employees are capable of
handling the seriousness of the
job. In fact, much of the BioManagement Northwest staff
have military backgrounds
or have worked for other
restoration companies.
Getting Close to Death
Stavros will be the first to
tell you the job comes with
difficulties. He doesn’t try to
sugar coat the intensity of the
business. Especially when
having to deal with death on
a routine basis.
“There’s a lot of discipline and
there’s a lot of experience,”
Stavros said of his employees.
“It’s a very well-rounded bunch.”
Drug Lab Cleaning
“It can affect you,” he said.
“We have had people suffer
from PTSD.”
In 2014 the Drug Enforcement
Agency conducted nearly 3,000
methamphetamine seizures.
That’s twice as many as a
decade earlier. Decontamination
of a meth lab must be performed
by professionals. That’s why BioManagement Northwest certifies
its technicians in hazardous
waste disposal.
When handling crime scene
cleanup the Bio Management
Northwest team typically comes
in after law enforcement has
conducted its investigation. Their
job during is to eliminate any
bio-hazardous waste, ensuring
the area is safe for the public.
According to the BioManagement website, meth
residue coats the surfaces in
homes and over exposure to
the chemicals can result in liver
and kidney damage, neurological
problems and an increase risk
of cancer.
To maintain a high level of
professionalism Stavros
personally trains his dozen or
so crew members. They receive
drug lab cleanup certification
from the Department of Health
and are also required to attend
hazardous waste classes.
“I would highly recommend
testing for methamphetamine
when buying a house,” Wilson
said. “We find, a lot of the times,
a family will buy a house and a
neighbor will come over and tell
them there was a lot of drug use
done there.”
Stavros said he rotates his
crewmembers out of crime
scene cleanup when he can tell
they are having a hard time.
They also suggest property
managers test for contaminants
between each tenant. Stavros
has given seminars and classes
on this type of testing to help
property managers protect
themselves and their tenants.
“We are happy to educate
them,” Stavros said. “We’re
highly specialized and we’ve
got a lot of experience in
working with property
managing companies.”
Business has been steady for
the past decade and a half, but
Stavros is already working at
expanding his services. He is
currently working on offering
services for disease control for
pandemics and epidemics.
“I keep the services we provide
very diverse,” Stavros said.
Crime Scene Cleanup
Despite offering an array of
services, probably the most
interesting is crime scene
cleanup. While this kind of work
might seem upsetting, Stavros
insists the reward comes from
helping others.
“There’s nothing like when you
come up to a scene and there’s
people who have lost a loved
one and you’re helping to guide
them through the process,”
Stavros said. “They’re already
traumatized and just the thought
of them going through the
process of cleaning up after a
suicide or unattended death
is a scarring event. There’s a
Continued on page 10
TORCH TALK MARCH 2016
“Well I can’t tap dance or
sing,” Stavros said. “So forced
economics –that’s what we are.”
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