Funeral home employee seen washing red liquid from van at public car wash

HOUSTON, Texas -- A video taken at a car wash on Lyons Avenue has some people heated. It shows a funeral home employee rinsing out a red liquid from the company van, while a bystander scolds him.

"It was really disturbing to where I had to come down and make my calls. I called 311 to see what we could do in reference to this. It did appear to look like blood, which is disturbing," neighbor Debra Castillo said.

Others have reached out expressing the same concern, so we went to Esperanza Funeral Home for ourselves. Owner Bono Pulido says the public has it all wrong.

"It's actually not blood, but it's a combination of citrus, and a combination of bleach salt that we use to clean our vehicles," he explained.

Pulido says they take proper care in their first response vehicles, which goes and picks up human remains. They typically mop and sanitize the vans themselves and would never do anything unethical, he said.

Erica Simon has more on a funeral home employee seen washing red liquid from a van.

We reached out to the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which oversees Esperanza, but so far, haven't heard back from the corporate team in Austin.

"We welcome any questions. We have not done anything that is wrong, that I know of. I have not been communicated with from the general commission, who regulates us," Pulido continued.

Castillo says she's still not buying it.

"The appearance is not good. It wasn't to me and may be disturbing to others just as well," she said.

Houston Health Department released the following response:

"We sent an inspector to both the car wash and funeral home identified in the video. The inspector did not see evidence of red liquid in the car wash bays. At the funeral home, the owner told us the liquid in the video was a cleaning solution. Our inspector was invited to look at the vehicle involved and did not see evidence of red liquid. However, the owner was not able to provide a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for the chemical. We will follow-up and with the funeral home, OHSA and the Texas Funeral Home Commission."