4,200 Medical Records Stored Inside Slowed Fire Cleanup
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[When members of the Pinckneyville City Council hammered physician Tim Mathis on television interviews recently about why it has taken so long to clean up the debris from the April fire that destroyed the Kunz Opera House, owner Mathis responds: "All you had to do was ask. Nobody did."
The Du Quoin Evening Call this week asked and Dr. Mathis--who provides ER coverage at hospitals in Metropolis and Staunton--was quick to tell us.
"Over 4200 medical records of my former patients that were stored in 14 boxes up against the front windows just west of the center column were spread out by a track hoe after the fire," he said. Dr. Mathis said he couldn't disclose that the records were there nor talk about why the cleanup took so long until the records were all accounted for. "I found some laying out in the street in the rain when I got there the morning after the fire. Later as I dug through the rubble and remains of the building I found they had been spread from the East wall to the West wall and as far back as 40 feet into what was left of the building, drenched in water and buried in 3-4 feet of brick, charred wood, twisted conduit and wiring and family heirlooms, books, important papers, diplomas, records, furniture, clothing and things we had saved from our kids school years and baby stuff."
"I couldn't even get in to the front of the building where the records were until the debris from the building next door was removed from the sidewalk - look at the pictures that are all over the Internet, see for yourself. the Opera House was filled not only with Opera House debris but also debris from the other building that the track hoe had shoved in there," Dr. Mathis continues.
"Since I work 40-60 hours a week in ER and was pretty much alone most of the time digging through the debris it just plain took me that long to dig through it. But I managed to get all but about 50 that I am aware of by the end of last week. Just got pressured by the "powers" and ran out of time. I had the guys removing the bricks run over everything with their dozer so whatever might have been left is ground up beyond recognition," he says.
"If you were one of those who trusted me with your own or your family members names, birth dates, social security numbers and other information that could have been used for identity theft, in addition to highly personal medical and psychiatric information that could have had potential for creating problems - family, employment or personal - you can rest assured that I personally saw to it that every record I found was buried 8-10 feet under the ground on a friend's farm as they were too wet to burn and too wet and filled with sand and other debris to shred."
"I didn't want to just throw away irreplaceable history by just hurrying up and having everything bulldozed and dumped in a landfill so I did my best to try to figure out how whatever was left that could be reused got the opportunity to "live on" if I could figure out a way to do it. As many of the reusable bricks as could be salvaged went to rebuild historical structures in New Orleans and various other places nearby there and will have a new life. I sold the cast iron front columns to someone with interest in local history who felt they should stay local."
"All the decorations, scrolls and other tinwork off the front has been destroyed and sent to the scrap yard except for a few pieces I gave to Mr. Kunz's Great-granddaughter," he said.
"I kept only the stars that were on the side of the building because my wife wanted them - the rest is gone or will be going to local farmers to use for filling washouts, etc. and whatever is left after that will have to go to a landfill."
Dr. Mathis said he and Ron Ridgeway, owner of the neighboring antique mall property, have not yet formulated a plan for the property.