The Fort Worth-based cleaning company that spent most of last week cleaning the apartment where the Dallas Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, was staying cleaned his hospital treatment room on Thursday.
Cleaning Guys Environmental worked through the night Wednesday and into the early morning on Thursday to decontaminate six rooms, two hallways and a nurses station at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
On Thursday morning another crew was dispatched to help with the transport of some of the hazardous materials collected over the last few weeks that were set to be incinerated.
"Going into that particular area [the hospital] was a little more stressful than the apartment," said Brad Smith, a vice president with CG Environmental.
Smith said at the apartment there were people without protection equipment on, and that led them to believe it wasn't as dangerous. However, they knew the hospital was where there was a greater risk. Still, he said seeing nurses work in the area gave them a calmness as they decontaminated part of the hospital.
"We cleaned the nurses station, the halls and I think there were six rooms," he said.
Smith said they removed linens, beds and anything else that could possibly be contaminated, all while they continued to wear personal protective equipment.
"Some of the guys went in with what they call 'A Level' suit, where you're actually on air packs," Smith said. "Fully encapsulated, and so when we come out that all goes out for disposal."
Smith said they took the job without hesitation and that his company takes every precaution for its workforce, but admits with Ebola there were some nerves.
"These guys want to get home to their family every night and they're nervous about it just like everyone else is nervous," Smith said. "We've been at ground zero. We were in the room last night, but we did what it took to make sure our guys were safe."
Smith said this is likely their most high profile job, but that it is what they do for a living whether it's cleaning a hospital or a highway.
"We did six road spills yesterday at the same time we were doing the bio[hazard]," he said.
CG Environmental worked a March 2014 sand truck spill on Interstate 35W in Fort Worth and the casino bus crash on the tollway in Irving last year. While those are more typical jobs for the company, Smith is confident they kept their employees and the rest of the public safe with their decontamination work.
"We want this thing to go away, so we want to do our part to help," Smith said.
CG Environmental said it has no other Ebola related job at this time.
