Today we bring you this article with multiple photos and a news video from Portland, Oregon television station KOIN.  It concerns the First Call Mortuary Services of Portland and the problems they have recently had with emissions from their crematory.

According to the article the mortuary service has had at least 21 cases of dark, smoky emissions from its crematory stack in the past year.  The issue has neighbors concerned and one neighbor commented in the article, “This was all black smoke and you could really smell it.  I had to come inside because it smelled too toxic to breathe.”

The state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is aware of the issues and even mentioned that First Call owner Deon Strommer has  self-reported more than the environmental laws require.  DEQ spokeswoman Jennifer Flynt reported, “We’re satisfied with how the process has been going.  It’s been operating as it should since diagnosing the problem.”

The “problem” as defined by Strommer has been a piece of crematory equipment that was apparently letting in too much oxygen into the crematory chamber.

According to the article, First Call Mortuary Services handles 3000 cremations per year and has recently added a resomator for water (or green) cremation.

Funeral Director Daily take:  A funeral business being involved in any news story is somewhat of a nightmare because public relations and having the public confidence on your side is so valuable to the building of your business.  However, we watched the news video and owner Strommer does a very good job of explaining his goals and commitment to the community.

I think it is also to Stommer’s benefit that he had self-reported more issues than he needed to and by working with the DEQ instead of being stand-offish and defensive he probably was even able to benefit from their assessment of the situation.  I think that there is something for funeral directors and mortuary owners to learn from his response —  when issues arise, work with – and not against licensing or regulatory authorities to resolve the issue.  At the end of the day you will probably come out better with the consumers that you need for business than if you had an adversarial role with the licensing or regulatory agency.

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