Your loved one has died, and they chose a cremation service in Oakland, CA. What happens to the body after the death? How long before the cremation takes place? What happens after the cremation? Here are all the details of how a body is prepared for a cremation.

First, the funeral home or crematory picks up the body. After the death, the funeral home or crematory of your choice will usually pick up the body and bring it to the funeral home or crematory. Once there, it will be placed in a prep room or in refrigeration. Next comes service planning.

The bereaved will then meet with a funeral director or cremation provider to plan a service, if desired, and determine the cremation details. During this time, the body is kept in a refrigeration unit between 36 and 39 degrees to slow decomposition. If the deceased or bereaved chose direct cremation, the body will stay refrigerated till the cremation. If they chose a public viewing, the body will be placed in a prep room for embalming.

The cremation provider will then prep the body by removing all jewelry, pacemakers, or medical devices in order to prevent melting or explosions during the cremation process. Jewelry is returned to the family and medical devices are often recycled or returned to the family. If the family or deceased chose direct cremation, there is no other preparation required. If the family chose a public viewing, the body will be embalmed, bathed, dried, dressed, and put in a casket. Next comes identity verification.

A family member or next-of-kin will complete and ID Verification form after preparation to signify that the body has been properly identified and is ready to be cremated or viewed at a service. Each facility and state have different procedures, but your funeral director or cremation provider will walk you through each step. Finally, there’s the cremation itself. After the body is identified and after any chosen service, the body is then placed in a cremation container.

Cremation containers can be solid wood caskets designed for cremation or corrugated cardboard boxes also designed for cremations. The cremation container with the body inside is then put into the cremation chamber and heated between 1400 and 2000 degrees for about two hours. Some crematories allow family members to view the cremation itself. If you wish to view the cremation, speak with your provider. After the cremation, the remains are cooled for about an hour and then processed through a machine that grinds remaining bones into powder. These powdered remains are returned to the family in an urn of their choice or in another kind of container.

This is only the basics of how a body is prepared for cremation. Do you want to learn more about the cremation process or Oakland, CA cremation services in general? Deer Creek Funeral Service is here to help. Stop by and pay us a visit or give us a call today for more information on what we can do for you in your time of loss.

No matter how unsettling or uncomfortable it might be, it’s important to know what happens to a body after a death if you’re planning a cremation service in Oakland, CA. Here is a breakdown of what happens to a body after death, from death pronouncement to final decomposition.

The first step is death pronouncement. The death pronouncement is when the person is officially declared dead by a medical professional. It can be different from the actual time of death as sometimes doctors are not present when the person actually dies. Instead, the death pronouncement is given after the doctor examines the body and determines that death has occurred. Next comes body transportation to the funeral home. After a death, someone has to notify the funeral home or cremation provider and then have someone come to the place of death and transport it to the funeral home or cremation location.

There’s also the option to preserve the body. There are several ways bodies are preserved before a cremation service or funeral including refrigeration and embalming. Bodies are kept cold with ice, dry ice, air conditioning, or refrigerators. They can also be traditionally embalmed or eco-embalmed, which is a method that does not use formaldehyde.

Most people choose to have some kind of memorial event for their lost loved one. The most traditional events are viewings, visitations, and wakes. A viewing or wake is when the embalmed body is present, and a visitation may or may not have the body present. Viewings and wakes are also generally more religious than wakes. There are also traditional funerals, which are services in which the body is present in a casket. Funerals are also usually religious events held at funeral homes or churches. Families can also choose to less traditional and host a memorial. Memorials are services at which the body is not present, either because the body was cremated or because the body was already buried.

Lastly, there’s the service and the final disposition. The body’s final disposition is where the body will be put to rest. Whether the body is buried or interned in a tomb or mausoleum, the service for final disposition is called a committal. When a body is cremated and placed in an urn or scattered, the ceremony is called a cremation ceremony or a scattering service. There are many different ways to put a body to rest, but the most common include burial and cremation. Bodies can be buried in the ground at a cemetery, above-ground in a mausoleum, entombment in a lawn crypt, or naturally buried in other locations. Final disposition options for after cremation include cremation with burial in a cemetery, above-ground burial in a columbarium, scattering of ashes, and inurnment with the urn kept at home. There are also alternative disposition methods such as alkaline hydrolysis, burial or scattering at sea, and body preservation.

Do you want to learn more about the process or Oakland, CA cremation services?
Deer Creek Funeral Service is here to help. Call or visit us to learn more about what we can do for you in your time of loss.