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Ashes of Ebola victim’s belongings to be buried

ASSOCIATED PRESS
FILE - This 2011 photo provided by Wilmot Chayee shows Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S., at a wedding in Ghana. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where Duncan was being treated for the disease, on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014 said Duncan has died. (AP Photo/Wilmot Chayee)

PORT ARTHUR, Texas >> The ashes of items taken from the Dallas apartment where a man became ill with the Ebola virus will be taken to a Louisiana hazardous waste landfill for burial.

The linen, bedding and carpet taken from the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan first got sick were taken to the Veolia Environmental Services incinerator in Port Arthur, where they were destroyed Friday. Company spokesman Dan Duncan tells the Beaumont Enterprise that the ash will be analyzed for two days for any remaining contamination before it is sent to Louisiana.

State officials say Duncan’s body was cremated but aren’t giving further details.

Beaumont-Port Arthur officials say they’re upset that Veolia didn’t advise them that potentially contaminated material was being shipped into the area for destruction. In a letter to the management of the Port Arthur incinerator, state Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, asked the incinerator’s general manager for a briefing on how the company came to be in contact with the state about taking on the job.

Deshotel said his aim is to "ensure our constituents the process went smoothly without any complications."

In an interview with the Port Arthur News, Deshotel said local elected leaders were placed in an awkward position with constituents by not having any information.

"A lot of the elected officials are getting calls and don’t know what to say," he said. "People have a lot of fear of this disease, a lot of misinformation, and as a result of that elected officials should be able to answer questions just to provide basic information."

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