Editor’s note: MegaFume recently performed a fumigation on historic Santa Catalina Island and MegaFumes Dave Wadleigh submitted the following video and story.
Avalon, or Avalon Bay, is the only incorporated city on Santa Catalina Island and the southernmost city in Los Angeles County. Besides Avalon, the only other population center on the island is the small unincorporated town of Two Harbors. The population was 3,728 at the 2010 census. William Wrigley Jr., a chewing gum magnate, took control of Avalon, in February 1919, by buying a controlling interest, in Santa Catalina Island and its associated properties, from the Banning Brothers. Before his purchase, he had traveled to Catalina with his wife, Ada and son, Philip and immediately fell in love with the island. Wrigley devoted himself to preserving and promoting the islands, investing millions in needed infrastructure and attractions.
Mega Fume, Inc. received a call for fumigation services at Avalon, Catalina Island, California. Doing fumigations, on an island, always creates unique issues; when you have to do a million cubes, it multiplies the challenges. Once the order was placed, by Rick Rousselle, owner of Rousselle Inc., we decided to send Kaiser Asuaga, General Manager of Mega Fume, Inc., on a pre-trip to the island, to double check the equipment needs and meet with the property manager Jacqueline Adler, of the Tremont apartments. He prepared the property manager on the procedure of the fumigation. From our arrival, until we left the island, she was instrumental to our success; she even cooked our crew dinner the first night on the island.
When Kaiser returned to the office, he knew he had an equipment weight problem, since we had to ship every item to the island on a ferry. We had to check the total weight of all the equipment and load it on our lightest truck. Then, we had to use more water snakes over sand snakes, because we could fill the water snakes at the job sight. We took a fume truck, ladders, safety equipment, tarps, clips, sand snakes, water snakes, ten men, and most of our food and drinks. Total weight, except for the men, was 18,000 pounds.
Our men arrived Monday morning at 7:30 am. They went to the docks to pick up the truck and off to the Tremont Apartment. Upon arrival, we covered two of the five buildings. Tuesday we covered the next three buildings. Kaiser did a great job on the planning. We used 39 tarps and had only two extra, we used 8000 clips with only 300 extra and we used extra ground snakes to double up on the windward side of the structures. Hence, by Tuesday evening all the structures were being fumigated, monitored and every picture was taken. Now it was time to celebrate; the hard part was over. Wednesday the first two buildings were unwrapped. Thursday the last three were finished and by 5:00pm, truck, equipment and crew were on the ferries and returning home. Most of our fumigation requests are for homes and businesses; but our crews really enjoy the challange of this type of unique job.