WESTMINSTER, Colo. (AP) - At 9 a.m., Jason Johnson and his mask-clad crew loaded their vehicles with chemicals, a plastic tub and other cleaning supplies from a storage unit in Westminster.
Johnson, his partner Jamie Milliken and their workers at 70 Services are careful under normal circumstances as part of a crime scene cleanup and biohazard remediation company. But the coronavirus has increased the stakes, and Johnson had to assume that any place they work might be contaminated.
If Johnson was concerned about the added risk his job entailed, he didn’t show it. He spoke matter-of-factly about the work ahead.
“It’s going to be an interesting day,” he said.
The first job was a Denver apartment that had been used as a meth lab. It was their third day cleaning the unit, so their chance of being exposed to the virus inside at that point was low.
When Johnson checked in around noon, the team was dressed in their disposable protective suits and was wiping down the kitchen cabinets and walls. An air scrubber hummed in the background as it captured any airborne chemicals that might still be lingering.
When they finished for the day at about 2:30 p.m., they took turns spraying each other’s suits with a chemical designed to kill viruses. That would prevent any coronavirus that might have attached to them from elsewhere in the building from becoming airborne when the suits came off, Johnson said.
At about 2:30 p.m., Johnson and his business partner, Jamie Milliken, arrived at the Wheat Ridge police station for their next job: disinfecting a cell contaminated by a spitting suspect.
There was no indication the suspect was infected with the coronavirus, but they took no chances. Milliken suited up in a disposable jumpsuit. He put on rubber boots, gloves and a mask with an air filter, and got to work.
Afterward, Johnson sprayed his partner down with the virus-killing chemical.
That job was the most rewarding part of the day, Johnson said. They helped make sure that officers and the next person who was put in that cell were not exposed to the virus.
“There is no reason someone needs to die over a bad decision,” he said.
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