PARKLAND, Wash. — A Parkland-area McDonald’s that closed to deal with a rat infestation has been given the go ahead from Pierce County health officials to reopen Friday morning.
The restaurant on Pacific Avenue South, just south of State Route 512 in the Parkland area, closed voluntarily Sunday.
Nathaly and Demarcus Williams took video of rats running across the floor inside the closed restaurant. A sign on a door says "Closed for maintenance."
"He [Demarcus] was like, 'There's rats!' And I'm like where? And we see a bunch of rats in the kids play area. And the first I thought was that I'm disgusted," Nathaly Williams said. Nathaly said she and her husband dropped their food, stopped eating, and picked up their phones to record what was happening.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department officials said they worked with the owner and a pest control company to make sure the rats were gone and a pest control plan was in place going forward.
A pre-opening inspection was conducted to ensure all surfaces were sanitized and any contaminated food was thrown out.
Health officials said there was no evidence of rodents during the pre-opening inspection.
A follow up inspection will be done in two weeks to make sure the restaurant’s pest control plan is working.
According to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department blog, food service closures for pests are rare, with only three such closures in the county in the last 10 years, including the recent closure of the Parkland McDonald’s.
In that case, the McDonald’s had already been working with a pest control company and had voluntarily closed when the problem reached the infestation level.
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