HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The crew tasked with cleaning the damaged Happy Days restaurant in Kaimuki gave a firsthand account of their efforts to remove rotting food trapped inside the establishment, weeks after its roof collapsed in August.
“Oh, it smells, it smells pretty bad,” said Aaron Ward, manager of 24 Hour Flood Pros, the company contracted to clean the eatery.
Many passersby agreed the smell coming from the property is pungent.
“(The smell) sours your stomach a little bit, it smells like rotting fish or rotting food, like a garbage dump,” said area resident Donald Bell.
A 24 Hour Flood Pros crew was dumping the rotting food on Thursday, while covered head to toe in protective yellow suits and donning respirators.
“There’s a lot of sludge that leaked out of the food, from the decaying food, and there’s oil and there’s just a lot of disgusting things that we deal with,” Ward added.
Besides dealing with the decaying dim sum and putrid meat since they began cleanup Tuesday, workers said the festering food has not attracted too many live animals.
“I think they (Happy Days) kept everything sealed off pretty well, so we’re not dealing with any of that, it’s more just the food waste,” Ward said.
While handling the food waste, 24 Hour Flood Pros did not let its workers remain in the building, covered in workwear, for more than 30 minutes.
“I guess this is what we do every day, we’ll have jobs like this,” Ward added.
Restaurant regulars, such as area resident Annie Lockwood, are happy the group is getting the job done as they wait for the day the business could reopen.
“I live just on Wilhelmina, and this was a great place that my family and I liked to come for celebrations. I had one of my birthdays there growing up, so it’s really sad to see what happened,” Lockwood said.
It is unclear if or when Happy Days will resume operations, as the property owner has not decided whether to repair or demolish the building.
Cleanup is expected to continue through Friday.
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