CANTON: Another Ohio county has made use of a mobile cooling unit to store bodies because its morgue ran out of space, in part because of fatal drug overdoses.
Beacon Journal news partner News 5 Cleveland reports the Stark County coroner had to bring in a 20-foot cooling trailer over the weekend. Investigator Rick Walters says the office was at capacity with eight bodies, then got four more on Saturday and employed the trailer.
Using temporary cooling units isn’t unusual. Ashtabula, Cuyahoga and Summit counties have used them in the past.
The Summit medical examiner used one in November 2015 when a corporate jet crashed in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood killing all nine people on board. The office also used a cooling unit last summer during a spike in drug overdose deaths.
The coroner in Dayton has said his office sought help from a local funeral home to store bodies amid an increase in overdose deaths.
A spokeswoman says the Ohio Department of Health has several cooling units that local agencies can request to use.
