The owner of a Las Vegas-based business is offering his services to help Southern Nevada first responders avoid contracting the COVID-19 virus.
Will Dellaechaie, president of Summit Restoration and Everest Construction, brought roughly a half-dozen employees to Pahrump on Thursday morning, April 30, where the group offered to clean, sanitize and disinfect law enforcement and fire department vehicles, free of charge.
Dellaechaie said he got the idea after taking his parents to a medical facility in Las Vegas.
“My father is a veteran as well as my brother, and I had to take my parents down to the veterans’ hospital in Las Vegas and I saw how they were allowing only patients inside,” he said.
After returning home and pondering the situation, Dellaechaie said he spoke to his family about the situation and decided to embark on the altruistic mission.
“I decided that we needed to get out here and do our part on this,” he said. “I think it’s my civic duty, and it’s important that you give back to the community in times like this, and do anything we can do to support our first responders, medical personnel and our health care people.”
Experienced crews
It should be noted that Summit Restoration is certified through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification, more commonly known as the IICRC, thus his crews possess the proper training, and experience to mitigate numerous contaminants.
Dellaechaie noted that he began the undertaking in the Las Vegas area before venturing into the Pahrump Valley.
“We have been doing this since March 28th and we’ve done about 2,200 vehicles so far,” he said. “We did the Clark County Fire Department, Las Vegas City Fire Department, Henderson Fire Department, Metro, NHP, the Marshals Service, Clark County School District Police, UNLV Police, and we do all health care personnel.”
Over the hump
After arriving in Pahrump at 9 a.m., on Thursday, Dellaechaie said his crews disinfected more than 30 vehicles, including two Mercy airships.
“We’ve done the fire departments’ rescue and ladder trucks, engines, and the heavy rescue trucks,” he said. “We also did the sheriff’s office vehicle and detention buses. You name it, if it’s a county or city or whatever municipality, we’ve done just about everything. It takes about 18 minutes per vehicle. We leave the air conditioners on and put them in recycle mode, that way we run the chemical mist through the air conditioner as well. We have to keep in mind that these are first responders and they have to be back in service.”
Killer chemicals
Dellaechaie said his crews are utilizing a chemical known as Neutral Disinfectant 64, which is a one step disinfectant, cleaner and deodorizer for use in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, public transportation, cruise ships, athletic facilities and restaurants.
The compound is effective in mitigating numerous contagions such as the human coronavirus, Avian Influenza A virus, Hepatitis B and C viruses, HIV and other contaminants.
“Some chemicals are stronger than others, but the chemicals we use have a 10-minute kill time,” he said. “We have some chemicals that are a little bit stronger than that, but we don’t want to put anything in the vehicle that’s going to have a lasting odor, and this way, we can get them in and out in 18 minutes.”
Personal protection
As his crews embark on sanitizing the vehicles, Dellaechaie said he makes sure to take every precaution to avoid becoming contaminated themselves.
“The crews have all of their personal protection equipment and we also take our temperatures multiple times throughout the day,” he noted. “So far, we haven’t had anybody symptomatic, fortunately. We are staying on top of it and if anyone has any symptoms, we sit down and discuss it with them, but so far we have been fortunate enough that we haven’t had any issues.”
Down but not out
Though Summit Restoration is considered an “essential business,” amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Dellaechaie said he’s seen a slight decline in customers, as of late, while noting that he wants to keep his employees employed.
“Right now we are running at about 65 percent of our normal capacity on our schedule,” he said. “The ones that are performing this service are our staff. Even though our schedule is off by about 35 percent right now, these guys are loyal and we treat them like family. We want to keep them busy and make sure they can continue to have income coming in. We are staying busy but we are not running at full capacity, so this is a way to give back to the community and get my guys some hours. We are fortunate and we’ve been blessed to have a successful business here in Southern Nevada.”
Additionally, Dellaechaie said he contacted all of the agencies prior to embarking on the vehicle cleanings.
“We let them know what kind of chemicals we were using and we sent over a Safety Data Sheet (SDS), so they can run it through all of their logistics,” he noted. “Once they approved the chemical, it took about two days from when we decided we were going to do this before we actually hit the ground.”
Big thanks
On a final note, Dellaechaie said he wanted to acknowledge the management at Golden Entertainment for allowing his company to use their properties.
“The general manager of Pahrump Nugget, Mark Seligman, was very open to giving us space for this and he definitely wanted to be involved in helping the community out here in Pahrump, so he was very gracious in making sure that we had the space that we needed.”
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes