The District of Columbia shut down six funeral homes for operating without the proper licenses, including one that is also accused of not storing bodies at the proper temperature.
The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs began to examine funeral homes after an inspector noticed some irregularities with one business, said spokeswoman Karyn-Siobhan Robinson. She said the DCRA closed the businesses within the last few weeks. None of them has been reopened, she said.
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District inspectors closed Reese Funeral Service, 360 14th St. NW, and threatened to revoke its business license after the DCRA discovered that the home did not have a licensed funeral director who had an ownership in the business. During an inspection of Reese Funeral Service, the DCRA discovered that the business did not refrigerate the remains of the dead at 38 degrees, the temperature required by the medical examinerâs office, Robinson said.
The District closed three businesses â Latneyâs Funeral Service Inc., 3831 Georgia Ave. NW; Dunn & Sons Funeral Service, 5635 Eads St. NE; and Watsonâs Funeral Home, 3435 14th St. NW â for not having a basic business license. A fourth, Hall Brothers Funeral Home, Inc., 621 Florida Ave. NW, did not have a certificate of occupancy.
Frazier Funeral Home Inc., 389 Rhode Island Ave. NW, was closed for conducting funerals without being properly licensed.
Robinson said the DCRA is working with the businesses, but “they wonât be opened overnight.”
None of the funeral homes responded to calls.
Joshua Slocum, executive director of Funeral Consumer Alliance, a funeral business watchdog group, said the unlicensed funeral homes “raises eyebrows,” especially in an industry where there is ample opportunity to take advantage of people in grief.
