Coronavirus: Trauma cleaner from Gosport risking his life to clear buildings of Covid-19

Asthma sufferer Jim Gildea, a trauma cleaner who deals with murder scenes and cleared up the whale at Portsmouth port in January, is risking his life by entering properties across England in the fight against Covid-19.

Together with five co-workers the 52-year-old and his Gosport firm Total Trauma Cleaning forms part of the rapid response to any confirmed outbreak. All of his other work is on hold.

Areas he has cleaned include a GP surgery in Haslemere that was infected with the virus. Jim is more at risk as his asthma means he has an underlying health condition.

In Portsmouth there have been 25 confirmed cases of the disease. In Britain there are 5,683. The government announced a lockdown on Monday night.

Since getting the first call-out in mid-February after landing at Heathrow from holiday, he has carried out between 20 and 25 cleans – and sometimes up to four a night.

And he has been helping out locally by carrying out clear-ups as his way of ‘paying back’ to the community.

‘It’s the busiest we’ve ever been,’ he told The News. ‘It’s a war, what's happening - no-one has dealt with this in 100 years.

‘It’s very scary but we’re geared up for this.’

He has previously said he knows that work could potentially be a ‘death sentence’ for him if he catches the disease.

‘I have to trust (my team) implicitly with my life now,’ he said.

And that was brought into sharp relief on Sunday night as he and his team cleaned ventilators at a makeshift intensive care unit far from his Hampshire home.

‘I’ve just watched it and it gets scarier and scarier.

‘(On Sunday) night I was sanitising and sterilising makeshift wards and making sure the ventilators that are going to be used are clean.

‘It’s just thinking - you could be in one of them. It’s daunting.’

Armed with back-pack sprayers, sanitiser and fogging kit, Jim and his team are experts in infection control.

They use a specialist chemical that kills off the bug, and lasts on the surface to protect it for up to two months.

‘The only time I’m at risk is when I’m not at work,’ he told the BBC.

Cleaning kits are fully sanitised, with equipment destroyed after each clean.

‘No-one coming in or out my workshop has to have a suit on, has to have a mask on,’ he told The News.

‘I won’t let anyone in without fully sanitising them, and with respiratory PPE.

‘I’m even taking separate vehicles to jobs. We’re not having two people in the room, even when not at work, because if one of us gets it we’re at risk of taking it somewhere and shutting us down.’