The lucrative business of cleaning crime scenes

July 19--It was one of James McArthur's first cleanup jobs. A man had died in a house in Northeast Philadelphia some days before, and the body had started to decompose.

"What's that smell?" a new employee asked.

"That's the decomp -- that's what it smells like," McArthur replied. A woman came out of the house and chastised him.

"That's my dad you're talking about!" he recalled her saying.

McArthur learned a valuable lesson in humility.

"Now I tell all my guys: When you go to the house . . . watch what you say," he said. "It's someone's home. You treat it with respect."

McArthur owns BioOne, a franchise biohazard removal and crime-scene cleanup firm in South Philadelphia.

The business is one of about a dozen in the area called on when someone dies and a cleanup is needed, due to blood from violence or a person dead for some time.

Despite a drop in violent crime across the United States, the crime-scene cleanup industry has boomed. Profits for the nearly 600 firms in the United States totaled more than $99 million in 2015, on revenues of $357.5 million, according to IBISWorld, a market research group. But those profits are sometimes reaped from those who can ill afford costs that may run into the tens of thousands of dollars when insurers do not pay.

In the Philadelphia area, there are a handful of locally owned franchises and cleanup crews, such as BioOne and Emergi-Clean.

Those businesses compete against larger companies such as Aftermath Inc., which has locations across the U.S. and did more than 500 jobs in the Philadelphia area from January 2015 to June 2016, the company said.

Some say the field was not so crowded six years ago, and owners credit the boom to its depiction in popular media, including the indie film Sunshine Cleaning.

"I was looking for advancement financially, and I was looking to buy a franchise, but I was always more into helping people," McArthur said. "You can get very rich off this. I'm not one of them, but you can definitely do it."

McArthur and other executives said that weak or nonexistent government regulations, on such issues as training and proper cleaning standards, have allowed too many people to get into the business and are starting to drive down profits.

In Pennsylvania, becoming a biohazard cleaning technician requires just two things: a $99 safety training course taught by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a Hepatitis B vaccine.

"There's not an organization that really regulates this industry as far as saying how you do it and what you need to do," said Bryan Reifsteck, senior director of operations for Aftermath Inc.

The lack of regulation has made cleaning companies rely on self-policing through the American Bio Recovery Association, which certifies operators and sets standards. But those rules are unenforceable, and the group simply asks that companies fall in line.

For consumers, the problem with biohazard removal is its price. Cleanups can cost from $1,000 to $40,000.

Homeowners insurance typically covers most of the costs to clean up a crime scene, but coverage usually is lumped together under the same coverage as fire and water damage, said Chris Hackett, director of Personal Lines policies at Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. And because there is no specific exclusion for crime-scene cleanup, insurance adjusters can underestimate the real cost.

"Bottom line, end of story is that biorecovery is not the same as having a fire or a flood in the house," said Andrew Yurchuck, president of the American Bio Recovery Association and the owner of Bio-Clean in Glassboro.

As a result, there will be instances in which insurers won't pay the full bill, leaving it to consumers to shell out the rest, he said.

For those who can't pay, most states have a Victims Compensation Assistance Program to help cover crime-scene cleanup. But in Pennsylvania, the maximum award is $500, which advocates say is a laughable amount.

"It's not enough," said Chantay Love, president of EMIR Healing Center, which assists Philadelphia families who apply for assistance for cleanup and funeral costs of those who were murdered. "It's never enough."

[email protected] 215-854-2928 @JosephJaafari

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