Ga. horror story can't happen here, authorities say -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 2/22/2002
Last Visited: 2/22/2002
"It really should never have happened," said Woodside Cemetery's general manager, Fred Wehr, of the situation in Georgia.
Woodside Cemetery handles 99 percent of the cremations in Butler County, Wehr said.It was completed in 1996.
Woodside handled 223 cremations last year and has handled about 45 so far this year, Wehr said.
"If there were proper overseeing of the operations there as we have in Ohio, this might not have happened," he said."It's appalling what's going on down there.It's highly, highly improper to handle a human body with anything but respect and the proper care."
...
Wehr added, "There is no way that what happened in Georgia could occur here because of the sequence of events that has to happen."
Wehr said that under Ohio law, cremations cannot be handled only through a crematorium.Under the rule of the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, cremations must be handled through a funeral home first.
...
The body is placed in a container, which is placed in the cremation chamber, Wehr said.
If family members so desire, they can watch the cremation in an area set aside specifically for viewing, Wehr said.The remains are then removed and taken to a processor, who places the remains inside a plastic bag in a container.The metal tag stays with the remains through this process.
That container is then either turned back over to the funeral home or remains at Woodside for final disposition per the family, Wehr said.
The crematorium at Woodside is subject to inspections by the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, but that has never happened because a problem has never been reported, Wehr said.The company that manufactured the cremation equipment inspects it once a year.
Asked about concerns that cremation laws have not been enforced here, Wehr said that since the laws were only passed in 1988, "We're moving in the right direction."
The operation in Georgia to recover discarded human remains from pits, sheds, metal vaults and even a shallow lake near the Noble crematory could last at least eight months, and the cost could top earlier estimates of $10 million, officials said Thursday.
The 3-acre lake, which has already yielded two bodies, will be drained as part of the search, officials said.
Since Friday, 242 bodies have been discovered at Tri-State Crematory in Noble, about 20 miles south of Chattanooga, Tenn.That count was expected to rise, authorities said.
6 online sources [ view sources ]
Profile is not claimed [ claim profile ]
