Local family calls in biohazard team after discovery of fiberglass from mattresses spread through rooms

Posted: Jun 16, 2021 / 06:45 PM CDT

Updated: Jun 18, 2021 / 11:31 AM CDT

One family is getting more for what they paid for after discovering something on not one, but two of their children’s mattresses.

KX sat down with the family to talk about something they didn’t think would be happening to them in a million years.

It was just another normal day for the Walz family, as mom and dad were changing their son Bennett’s bedding.

“After we took off the sheets and the fitted sheet and the cover or like the mattress pad, we realized we needed to also take off the cover that came with the mattress and since it had a zipper that went all the way around, we didn’t think twice that being something that you couldn’t take off,” said Jennifer Walz.

After washing the mattress cover, dad brought it outside to dry completely and that’s when he noticed he was covered in a sparkling material that was not glitter.

“At first I didn’t believe it. I thought, ‘I’m sure it’s just some kind of glittery material or something.’ But I look into it and sure enough, they used– It was what was under that cover was a fiberglass mesh,” explained Walz.

The fiberglass mesh is typically used as a fire barrier for mattresses as it is a requirement in the United States. But 8-year-old Bennett didn’t think his bed would make him itch.

“I did feel some stuff on my bed before that and I thought it was just crumbs because sometimes I eat in bed. Usually done on my legs or up here,” explained Bennett.

That’s when the parents decided to bring in a biohazard team as the pieces were all over the room and their other son had the same type of mattress.

And cleaning up this fine material is not a simple sweep job.

“It’s going to stick into carpets and textile, clothing. It’s going to be extremely difficult to get it out of those things. Clothing is questionable. The carpet and things like that most likely in the situation that are affected need to be removed,” said Tyler Leier, general manager/part-owner of Arrow Service Team.

The biohazard team will be there for a day and a half to ensure that both rooms are completely cleared out and safe to go back into.

“They went through closing off air ducts, plasticing off the HVAC system to control the fibers and also containing the doorways to the affected rooms. Then the next step will be putting that room under negative pressure. So we have air going out of that room so as people are coming in and out of that room we’re not bringing fibers out of the room,” explained Leier.

The family will be losing both mattresses, pillows and furniture after this process.

The brand of the mattress is Green Choice. The Walz family purchased the mattresses locally at Denver Mattress.

We reached out to Denver Mattress for comment and they said they no longer carry this brand, but when they did it was approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.