ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Cleaning is officially underway Wednesday at a seafood market in University City, Missouri that has had fish rotting for months.
Seafood City Supermarket has been out of operation since March after St. Louis health officials shut down the supermarket after it was determined that the supermarket improperly stored some of it products.
However, the owner of the supermarket left fish rotting in the supermarket since the shutdown, causing a smell that so strong that many University City neighbors were questioning what was the foul smell until they discovered it was coming from the supermarket six months later.
Stu McMillan, KMOX
An official with Bio-One, the cleaning company in charge of cleaning the supermarket, told KMOX it is one of the worst cleanups scenes they have ever been too.
"Everything is just covered with cockroaches. Alot of flies, maggots and roaches, and GNats," said a Bio-One official, "There's a hole in the roof, rainwater had came down and that contaminated a lot of stuff."
The smell of the rotten fish and the facility was so putrid that even wearing a N95 mask couldn't even protect you from the smell.
Clean up crews were seen wearing hazmat suits head to toe.
The official tells KMOX News that the rotten smell was so strong due to how long the electricity of the facility had been turned off.
"So it already would be a really gross smelly situation, because things were expired," said the official, "But the fish expired very quickly because there was nothing to keep it cold, so everything in the back has pretty much turned to liquid."
Clean up crews says it will take at least month before they can properly clean the entire facility.
