This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/nyregion/bodies-brooklyn-funeral-home-coronavirus.html

The article has changed 19 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Dozens of Decomposing Bodies Found in Trucks at Brooklyn Funeral Home Dozens of Decomposing Bodies Found in Trucks at Brooklyn Funeral Home
(about 16 hours later)
The call came in at shortly after 11 a.m. on Wednesday: A terrible stench was coming from a pair of trucks parked outside a funeral home on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn.The call came in at shortly after 11 a.m. on Wednesday: A terrible stench was coming from a pair of trucks parked outside a funeral home on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn.
When the police arrived, they made a gruesome discovery. Inside the trucks — a U-Haul rental and what seemed to be a tractor-trailer — were several dozen decomposing bodies.When the police arrived, they made a gruesome discovery. Inside the trucks — a U-Haul rental and what seemed to be a tractor-trailer — were several dozen decomposing bodies.
It remained unclear how many of the people found stacked in body bags inside the trucks at the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home had died in the coronavirus pandemic, the authorities said. The New York State Department of Health, which regulates funeral homes, was also called to the scene, in the borough’s Flatlands section, to determine whether the funeral home was handling the remains appropriately, and it issued two summonses, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
But New York City’s death care system its hospital mortuaries, cemeteries, crematories and city-run morgues has been under extraordinary strain in recent weeks as beleaguered workers have tried to grapple with the single worst mass casualty event to hit New York since the Spanish flu pandemic of a century ago. At least 14,000 people in the city have perished from Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The spectacle of dead New Yorkers left to decay in broad daylight in rental trucks on a crowded street in Brooklyn underscored the scale of challenge facing the city as it tries to absorb the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 17,000 people in New York City have died so far from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
No one has felt the pressure more than funeral directors who have been caught in the vise between the rising tide of bodies pouring out of hospitals and nursing homes and the backlogs that make them unable to cremate or bury people quickly. Some funeral homes have had to use refrigerated trailers, and others have converted chapels into temporary morgues, using high-powered air conditioners to chill the rooms. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday morning described the discovery of the bodies as a “horrible situation” that was “absolutely unacceptable.”
Still, the notion that dead New Yorkers could be left to decay in broad daylight in rental trucks on a crowded street in Brooklyn underscored the challenges facing the city as it tries to absorb a disaster that has already killed nearly five times as many as died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. “They have an obligation to the people they serve to treat them with dignity,” he said of funeral homes. “I have no idea in the world how any funeral home could let this happen.”
One official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the matter, said that the funeral home had been storing bodies in the trucks after its freezer stopped operating properly. Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, said that he arrived at the AndrewT. Cleckley Funeral Home around 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday and found police officers and other investigators had sealed off the streets like a crime scene and were examining the tractor-trailer and the U-Haul.
Funeral directors are required to store bodies awaiting burial or cremation in appropriate conditions that prevent infection. “It appears the truck was full,” Mr. Adams said. “They were trying to use U-Haul as a backup.”
Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, arrived at the Cleckley funeral parlor around 5:15 p.m Wednesday, he said, and found police officers and other investigators had sealed off the streets like a crime scene and were examining the tractor-trailer and the U-Haul. He added, “This is traumatizing to family members.”
“It appears the truck was full,” Mr. Adams said. “They were trying to use U-Haul as a backup.” He added: “This is traumatizing to family members.” Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, said on Thursday that the Health Department had not received complaints about the funeral home in the past. He added that the agency was now investigating the business, which could face fines or have its license suspended.
The state Department of Health, which regulates funeral homes, was also called to the scene to determine whether the funeral home was handling the remains appropriately and issued two summonses, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The owner, Andrew T. Cleckley, said in an interview on Thursday that, like other funeral directors in New York, he had been overwhelmed by the relentless tide of bodies during the pandemic. Mr. Cleckley said he had used the trucks for overflow storage, but only after he had filled his chapel with more than 100 corpses.
Mr. Cleckley could not immediately be reached for comment. A man who answered the phone at the funeral home on Wednesday night hung up before a reporter could ask questions. “I ran out of space,” he said. “Bodies are coming out of our ears.”
According to an article from the website Loopcayman.com, Mr. Cleckley opened the home in 2015 with his wife, Alva Stuart, and initially serviced other funeral homes by transporting bodies to them from locations where people had died. In 2017, however, “the decision was made to transform into full funeral services including burial, cremation and international shipping,” the article said. State officials did not make clear what civil or criminal penalties Mr. Cleckley would face for allowing decedents entrusted to his care to decompose. Under state regulations, funeral directors are required to store bodies awaiting burial or cremation in appropriate conditions that prevent infection to others.
A website run by the state Department of Health listed Mr. Cleckley as a fully licensed funeral director. But the most recent certificate of operation for the address of his business, filed with the city Department of Buildings, mentions nothing about its being a funeral parlor. It said the first floor of his establishment, at 2037A Utica Ave., was used for “automobile retail” and for “the manufacturing of machinery.” Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, New York City’s death care system its hospital mortuaries, cemeteries, crematories and city-run morgues has been under an extraordinary strain, as beleaguered workers have tried to grapple with the single worst mass casualty event to hit New York since the Spanish flu pandemic of a century ago.
Mike Lanotte, the president of the New York Funeral Directors Association, said that Mr. Cleckley was not a member of the organization. Funeral directors have been caught between the onslaught of bodies pouring out of hospitals and nursing homes and the backlogs that make them unable to cremate or bury people quickly. Some funeral homes have had to use refrigerated trailers, like those that the city has provided to hospitals around New York.
A Health Department spokeswoman, Erin Silk, said that alternate arrangements for the remains were being made by the funeral home. It was unclear where the remains were taken. But Mr. Cleckley said his parlor had been unable to purchase a refrigerated trailer because of shortages.
John DePietro, who owns the building next door to Mr. Cleckley, said he noticed five vehicles parked outside the funeral home on Tuesday. Mr. Cleckley opened his funeral home in 2015 with his wife, Alva Stuart, and initially built a business serving other local morticians by transporting bodies to them from locations where people had died. But in 2017, he said, he started offering a full line of services, like embalming and cremation, to his partners.
“They had dead bodies in the vans and trucks,” Mr. DePietro said. “They were on top of each other in body bags.” Currently, he said, five other funeral homes use his storefront space, which, he said, caused him to be overwhelmed as deaths in New York reached a peak this month. Each of the other homes, he said, were in charge of as many as 30 or 40 bodies.
He added that he could not “judge for sure” how many bodies were in the vehicles, “but all of them were packed.” A website run by the state’s Department of Health listed Mr. Cleckley as a fully licensed funeral director. But the most recent certificate of operation for the address of his business, filed with the city’s Department of Buildings, mentions nothing about a funeral parlor. It said the first floor of his establishment, at 2037A Utica Avenue, was used for “automobile retail” and for “the manufacturing of machinery.”
Mike Lanotte, the president of the New York Funeral Directors Association, said Mr. Cleckley was not a member of the organization.
A Health Department spokeswoman, Erin Silk, said alternate arrangements for the remains were being made by the funeral home. It was unclear where the remains were taken.
Mr. Cleckley said that more families have called him in April asking for his help than in an all of last year and acknowledged that he had taken on more work that he could handle.
“We’re all trying to help our clients,” he said, “but we’re jammed up.”
William K. Rashbaum and Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.William K. Rashbaum and Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.