[Prediction came true!] LINE OF SMOKE & BURNING BODIES! FIRE, CORPORATE SECRETS, AND MAYHEM ON THE STREETS!

[Update: My prediction came partly true. The Post didn't get Lawrence Mower/Katie LaGrone/PBSO-esque with the headline but the 4-day-old news did make it to the Post's front page, above the fold today (Sunday 7/19); they are hedging good old Lake Worth can sell a few extra papers. Here is the original post from yesterday (7/18):]

It will be interesting to see Joe Capozzi's headline for the cremation incident that occurred in Lake Worth. The Palm Beach Post has decided to hold off publishing it in the print edition; you'll see it on the front page above-the-fold in tomorrow's paper probably. Face it, it will sell some papers. Hopefully the Post won't go the route of the LINE OF FIRE: BULLETS, BADGES, AND DEATH ON THE STREET like they did with another recent story.

Capozzi's article is fair (albeit with a little flair for the dramatic) in the version I read recently online and doesn't fall too hard for the social media hype that's been driving this story.

Watching the social media about this crematorium incident, primarily Facebook, was a thing to behold. In the hours some spent relaying their fears, theories, and self-learning about the incident I found most of the answers online through Google in about 15 minutes. In a nutshell what happened was human error and it happens from time to time in the cremation business. The smell of 'bodies' and 'hair' was imagined and the density of the smoke was embellished but just very slightly. Here is an excerpt from the Post article:

     On July 1, station 91 received its first call about smoke at All County [All County Funeral Home and Crematory] at 6:40 p.m. All County told the health department that the burn started around 6:10 p.m.
     “It wasn’t smoke that went straight up. It was banking down and pushing across the streets, probably because of the humidity,’’ Wallace [district chief Tim Wallace of Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Station 91], said.
     Wallace said he understands why residents were concerned. But, he added, “It probably seemed worse than it actually was.’’ [emphasis added]
     The smoke that residents walked through was “soot” but not ash, Miller [environmental supervisor Randall Miller] said. “There might be smoke particulates, but this is not a typical ash like you have in a sugar cane burn,’’ he said.

Here is how Capozzi began his article on the incident (the previously mentioned dramatic flair):

     The thick black smoke was hard to miss. It curled into the sky, swallowing the tops of palm trees and tumbling down like a shroud over the downtown streets around Lake Avenue just west of U.S. 1.
     Dozens of residents rushing toward the source of the plume expected to find a building in flames or the twisted wreckage of a bad traffic accident.
     What they discovered was something they considered even more horrifying: Smoke from the burning of human remains.

So we're to conclude the smoke was more horrifying than a terrible car accident or a structure engulfed in furious flames. Oh well.

Here is a very good website for those with questions about cremation and here is the video that shows how the process is done (it's not for the squeamish):

No one, including myself, is all too happy having crematoria within the City limits but they are here to stay. The businesses are legal and are following the law. Lake Worth's present zoning codes do not allow for more crematoria within the City; so let's put that rumor to rest folks.