The First Steps to Take After a Fire

10/17/2016 (Permalink)

A fire can be devastating for your home or business and getting started on the restoration process can be truly overwhelming. Your property may have suffered fire and smoke damage, as well as widespread water damage and flooding from firefighting efforts. With SERVPRO of Milton/Braintree's specialized fire and water damage restoration experience, we can help get your home or business cleaned up and restored to its pre-fire condition. We'll even remove the pervasive smoke odor and soot by deep cleaning your upholstery and carpet.

What to do after a fire:

• Secure openings made to your property by firefighters using sturdy, durable materials designed to protect your home from both weather intrusion and intrusion by outsiders.
• Keep hands clean so as not to further soil upholstery, walls and woodwork.
• Place clean towels or old linens on rugs, upholstery and carpet traffic areas.
• If electricity is off, empty freezer and refrigerator and prop doors open.
• Clean and protect chrome with light coating of petroleum jelly or oil.
• Wash houseplants on both sides of leaves.

What NOT to do after a fire:

• Don't attempt to wash any walls or painted surfaces or shampoo carpet or upholstery without contacting a SERVPRO of Milton/Braintree Professional.
• Don't attempt to clean any electrical appliances that may have been close to fire, heat, or water without consulting an authorized repair service.
• Don't use any canned or packaged food or beverages that may have been stored near the fire, heat, or water.
• Don't turn on ceiling fixtures if the ceiling is wet. The wiring may be damaged.
• Don't send garments to an ordinary dry cleaner. Improper cleaning may destroy your garments.

Determine the Type of Cleaning Needed

Before starting the cleanup process it's extremely helpful to know what type of fire damage has occurred. There are different types of fire, smoke, and soot and each requires a different clean up method to best restore your property. Prior to beginning the restoration process, our professional technicians will test the soot to help determine which type of smoke damage occurred and will design the clean up procedure based on that information.

The Different Types of Fire/Smoke/Soot Can Include:

• Wet Smoke – Usually from Plastics and Synthetics
  • Occurs from Low heat, smoldering, pungent odor, sticky, smeary.
• Dry Smoke – Produced from Paper and Wood
  • Fast burning, high temperatures, dry, powdery, non-smeary residues.
• Protein Fire Residue – Produced by the evaporation of material rather than from a fire
  • Virtually invisible, discolors paints and varnishes, extreme pungent odor.
• Fuel Oil Soot – Furnace Puff Backs
• Other Types – Tear gas, fingerprint powder and fire extinguisher residue.

SERVPRO of Milton/Braintree has what it takes to restore your home back to pre-loss condition. Let us help you make it “Like It never even happened”.

Board-ups - In some cases firefighters may break windows and cut holes in the roof in order to vent the fire. It is extremely important to secure openings to your home or structure using sturdy, durable materials designed to protect it