Xtreme Cleaners, a crime-scene cleaning company in Prairieville, will face the challenges of cleaning a home devastated by Hurricane Katrina and a home ransacked by hoarders April 12 on the TLC show “Ultimate Cleaners.”
Larry Douglas, president of Xtreme Cleaners, is a former police officer from New England who founded the company in 2003 because he wanted to help families clean up after tragic events place in their homes. The company added the Prairieville location in 2008.
“The premise was to help families in time of need,” Douglas said.
The episodes featuring Xtreme Cleaners were supposed to premiere March 20 but have been pushed back so a Charlie Sheen special can air.
Douglas said the company now cleans homicide and suicide incidents, methamphetamine labs, crack houses, hoarder homes and animal over-runs.
“Basically, anything that causes a house to go into total distress,” Douglas said.
Douglas said suicide is an incident with which the company commonly deals.
“We are extremely discreet and clean it up so the family doesn’t have to deal with the trauma,” he said.
Douglas said his service doesn’t become a burden on families because the cleanup can be covered by homeowners insurance if a crime scene or death occurs in the home.
Douglas said some cases are tougher than others. For example, odors and maggots from decomposing bodies that have been in a home for a while are harder cases to clean, and some of the most sensitive cases are difficult.
“Anytime you have mass murders involving children, those are the ones that will stay with you,” he said.
Douglas said the company has handled meth labs in Gonzales and the homicides at Southern University in February.
Xtreme Cleaners cleaned the home of a hoarder in Michigan and a house damaged by Katrina in New Orleans in December for the TLC show, said Alan LeGarde, executive producer and president of Paper Route Productions.
“These are extraordinary cases we followed really in depth for an entire week,” LeGarde said.
LeGarde said these houses were virtually destroyed, and people were amazed by the outcome when the company was finished.
LeGarde said the house in Michigan was referred to the show.
Ultimate Cleaners is different from shows like “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” because people don’t write to the show looking for help, LeGarde said. These people are in danger of losing their homes, and the show is able to help them.
“This isn’t the kind of thing people want others to see — that their house is in this situation,” he said.
LeGarde said it is comforting for people to know there are companies and families like the Douglases to help them.
He said the show currently focuses on problems like natural disaster damage or a former hoarder who needs help getting his or her house back together, but the show eventually could explore other areas of cleaning.
Douglas said Xtreme Cleaners employees must undergo 10 hours of training in an Occupational Safety and Health Administration course, as well as crime scene, blood-borne pathogen, psychological and other training.
Douglas said employees must perform a mock cleanup at the end of training.
Xtreme Cleaners uses special tools like a neutral ozone generator and cold jet technology, which uses dry ice and pressure to sanitize, to do its job, Douglas said.
The company will clean anywhere in the U.S. but is presently focused in Baton Rouge and New Hampshire for logistical reasons, according to Douglas.
Mia Ferriss, physics secondary education sophomore, said the show sounds like “Sunshine Cleaning,” a movie with Amy Adams and Emily Blunt that involves crime-scene cleanup.
Cat Quintana, accounting sophomore, said she thinks helping people is one of the best aspects of the show and business.
“It’s especially good to help people with mental disorders like hoarding,” Quintana said.
 
 
____
Contact Celeste Ansley at [email protected]