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March 14, 2013
Restoration Services: When Disaster Strikes (Part 2)

CHICAGO — Long an offshoot, restoration has come into its own as add-on that can eclipse core dry cleaning business

CHICAGO — A late-night fire scorches a two-story home, but firefighters are able to douse the flames before the structure is destroyed. Still, the smoke and water damage is extensive. Now, in his time of greatest need, the homeowner turns to his insurance company to begin the process of getting his family’s lives back to normal.

So, who does the insurance provider turn to at a time like this? It’ll call in contractors to see about repairing and/or rebuilding the structure, but before that can happen, something has to be done about the family’s personal belongings. Can they be saved? Are they worth saving?

That’s when the smart adjuster calls in a dry cleaner that specializes in restoring garments and soft goods. Long an offshoot of dry cleaning, restoration has come into its own as the add-on that can easily eclipse the core business.

March 12, 2013
Restoration Services: When Disaster Strikes (Part 1)

CHICAGO — Long an offshoot, restoration has come into its own as add-on that can eclipse core dry cleaning business

CHICAGO — A late-night fire scorches a two-story home, but firefighters are able to douse the flames before the structure is destroyed. Still, the smoke and water damage is extensive. Now, in his time of greatest need, the homeowner turns to his insurance company to begin the process of getting his family’s lives back to normal.

So, who does the insurance provider turn to at a time like this? It’ll call in contractors to see about repairing and/or rebuilding the structure, but before that can happen, something has to be done about the family’s personal belongings. Can they be saved? Are they worth saving?

That’s when the smart adjuster calls in a dry cleaner that specializes in restoring garments and soft goods. Long an offshoot of dry cleaning, restoration has come into its own as the add-on that can easily eclipse the core business.

December 22, 2011
EPA Finalizes Plan to Clean Up Old Dry Cleaner Site in Hempstead, N.Y.

NEW YORK — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a plan to clean up ground water at the Peninsula Boulevard Ground Water Plume Superfund site in Hempstead, N.Y.

The ground water is contaminated with tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, dry-cleaning chemicals that can seriously impact people’s health, EPA says.

The cleanup plan entails extracting ground water from the site using pumping wells and treating the water to remove the contaminants before it is disposed of at a public wastewater treatment facility or sent back into surface or ground water.

Residents in the area get their drinking water from the Long Island American Water Co., which operates a drinking water well field approximately 1,000 feet north of the Peninsula Boulevard site. EPA did not detect any contaminants above acceptable levels in ground water from the company during its investigation.

A series of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation investigations in the 1990s revealed an extensive ground water contaminant plume at the site of the former Grove Cleaners, EPA says.

May 24, 2011
StatShot: Sales Gain Steam in Northeast, South

June 18, 2010
Laundry CEO Organizes Towel-Collection Drive for Gulf Spill Clean-Up

Note: Revised 6/30/2010 to Correct Area Code

David Gross, CEO of Gulf Coast Laundry Services in Gulfport, Miss., is coordinating an effort to get much-needed towels to wildlife agencies racing to save birds, turtles, dolphins and other animals affected by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Government officials on Tuesday raised the estimate of the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf to 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day.

September 22, 2009
New Jersey Drycleaner Charged with Arson

BOONTON, N.J. — Umang Patel, owner of the Cleanse-O-Matic drycleaning and laundry service store in Boonton, N.J., was charged with arson recently after the store caught fire.

Patel allegedly went into the store before 7:00 a.m. and set fire to clothes on racks behind the counter using a book of matches, Boonton Police Capt. Curt James told the local newspaper Daily Record. Patel walked out, locking the door behind him, and walked to a nearby McDonald’s, James said.

July 13, 2009
FRSTeam Signs Operator in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Fabric Restoration Service Team (FRSTeam) has added Anderson Cleaners in St. Paul, Minn., as an independent licensed operator focusing on the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

April 29, 2009
Life & Times in The Industry: Personal Memories from Those Who Were There

I was in college and needed money to finish when I agreed to work for a year as the manager of a drycleaning plant. I fell in love with the idea of owning my own business, and especially with owning a drycleaning business. I got the education of a lifetime!

I became friends with two of the greatest consultants in the industry, Stan Golomb and Stan Caplan. Stan Golomb taught me more than I could imagine about marketing, and Stan Caplan taught me everything I ever needed to know about cleaning and production.
 

November 7, 2007
Barton Solvents Focuses on Recovery

DES MOINES, Iowa — Since a massive explosion and fire destroyed an Iowa warehouse, and loading dock last Monday, chemical supplier Barton Solvents is focusing on recovery.

The fire took local firefighters 11 hours to contain last week, and debris was still smoldering several days later. A preliminary review indicates that static electricity sparked an explosion of ethyl acetate, which has an extremely low flashpoint. Barton’s Valley Center, Kan., fire earlier this year is thought to have been ignited by a drycleaning solvent.

October 31, 2007
Barton Solvents Suffers Second Explosion

DES MOINES, Iowa — Barton Solvents, a supplier of drycleaning solvents and other chemicals, suffered a massive explosion and fire at its plant outside Des Moines on Monday. The explosion is the company’s second this year.

Reported at 1:15 p.m., the fire continued for several hours as 55-gallon drums and 300-gallon tanks exploded to feed the flames. Fire departments throughout the Des Moines metro area responded to the fire, but often had to keep their distance due to successive blasts. The fire was mostly contained by 10:00 p.m.

July 11, 2007
Blue Sky Restores Hope Following Tahoe Wildfire

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. — San Francisco-based Blue Sky Cleaners was one of the first fire-restoration companies to arrive on the scene following a devastating forest fire south of Lake Tahoe that destroyed more than 250 homes last month.

Sparked by an illegal campfire, the Angora wildfire started June 24 and scorched more than 3,100 acres in the South Lake Tahoe area before being contained more than a week later. The area was already at high risk for forest fires due to high temperatures and drought conditions.