TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

New Hillsborough Medical Examiner's Office Opens Thursday

Tribune file photo by JAY CONNER

The new Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Complex on North 46th Street.

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune
and JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2009

TAMPA - The new 31,500-square-foot Hillsborough County Medical Examiner complex has a grand opening Thursday.

It features state-of-the-art equipment, more comfort area for families and others visiting the morgue, as well as capabilities to activate a mass fatality operation.

The ribbon-cutting event, which includes tours, is open to the public and runs from 10 a.m. to noon at 11025 N. 46th St.

While the official opening happens Thursday, autopsies and examinations have been going on in the new morgue since late last year. The office's staff, 35, including examiners, investigators and clerical help, has remained the same.

Medical examiners perform about 1,500 autopsies a year, and about 2,000 bodies move through the office each year.

The previous space, a cramped 8,000-square-foot building on Morgan Street in the shadow of the St. Pete Times forum, opened in 1977 and had space to store about 40 bodies.

Should a catastrophe, or a "mass fatality incident," like a hurricane, an act of terrorism or an airplane crash happen in the Bay area, that isn't nearly enough space to handle the load, officials say. Plus the building was smack in the middle of a flood zone.

Bailey said there wasn't a proper place for families, funeral directors, law enforcement or reporters who frequent the building.

The new building, which has been in the works since the1990s, cost about $13 million, said Dick Bailey, operations manager for the office. It won't flood even if a hurricane hits the Bay area. It has the capacity for 150 to 160 bodies.

Out back there are electrical hookups for refrigerated trailers that could more than double the capacity, should there be a major catastrophe that produced some 400 bodies.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT