Areas we cover

Crews are dispatched nationwide, 24 hours a day. The pages below cover the areas we are asked about most — but coverage is not limited to them. If your city is not listed, call and ask.

☎Check coverage for your area(831) 428-0657

Why location matters more than you would expect

Two things change from place to place, and both affect what happens to a property.

The first is which office investigates a death, which varies enormously and is not intuitive. Texas requires a medical examiner only in counties above one million residents; smaller counties use justices of the peace as inquest officers. Most of Colorado elects county coroners who need not be physicians, while Denver — a consolidated city-county — runs a medical examiner. Ohio elects coroners but requires them to be licensed physicians. Nebraska vests the role in the elected county attorney. Florida abolished coroners entirely in favour of district medical examiners. Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Virginia and Utah run single statewide offices.

The second is whether the remediation work itself is licensed. California requires companies performing trauma scene waste management to hold Trauma Scene Waste Management Practitioner registration with the state Department of Public Health — a publicly checkable credential. Most states have no equivalent scheme, which means verifying bloodborne pathogen training and a named permitted waste hauler matters more rather than less.

Beyond the paperwork, climate and construction do the rest. A property in Phoenix or Las Vegas can reach a condition in three summer days that would take a fortnight in Denver or Spokane. Slab-on-grade construction contains fluid vertically but spreads it laterally under flooring; pier-and-beam sends it into a crawlspace; basements send it into joists. Shared-wall housing in San Francisco, Baltimore or New York means contamination frequently presents in the neighbouring unit rather than the affected one.

Each page below covers what actually applies where you are, rather than repeating the same text with a different city name in it.