Fire and Smoke Restoration

When it comes to our homes, one of the worst things that can happen is a fire. Watching as flames wreck everything that you’ve worked hard to build is difficult. Even in this deep crisis, the important thing to remember is that you aren’t alone. After a fire in your home or business, partner with the right people and you’ll get back on your feet in no time. First Call Response’s fire and smoke restoration service have the right tools and experience to help clean up your home so that you can leave this troubling ordeal behind you.

Why choose First Call Response? Aside from our experience and resources, we also work with your insurance company to alleviate the pressure on your shoulders. Ultimately, we want to help you move forward with the next chapter of your life and regain some sense of normality after a fire or smoke damage (regardless of how big or small).

Steps to Take After a Fire

In this guide, we’re going to provide advice for all homeowners and business owners. While some will have experienced small fires, others will have been through a large fire. Either way, we have the advice to complement our leading fire and smoke damage restoration services.

Firstly, try not to move around too much in your home because you can actually carry soot particles around the property and cause more damage. The more you move around, the more cross-contamination you’ll cause as these particles embed themselves into carpets and furniture.

Next, remove your HVAC filter and empty the fridges and freezers (assuming that the electricity is still off). After doing this, leave the doors propped open.

If possible, use old linens or towels to line the carpet, rugs, and upholstery. If you experienced a larger fire, it’s important to reach out to First Call Response soon to start the recovery process.

Steps to Avoid After a Fire

Initially, many homeowners think that they can attempt the recovery process by themselves. Immediately, they want to wash painted surfaces and walls with products. In our experience, it’s best to put the products down and wait for professional help. Among other things, you could end up causing more damage using the wrong technique or product. A smoke damage cleaning service will know exactly how to treat different materials in your home.

The reason we suggested emptying your fridges and freezers is that all food that came into contact with water, fire, or heat is probably ruined. It’s best to throw this food in the trash rather than risking serious illness (on top of everything else!).

Just as we said with walls, try not to clean devices, electrical appliances, and similar items around your home. Wherever possible, you need to treat all appliances and devices carefully after they encounter fire, heat, and water.

Here’s some extra advice in this area:

• Don’t go around your home touching various surfaces because the oils in your skin could stain these surfaces permanently.
• Don’t try to turn on any lights because the fire could have damaged the wiring.
• Don’t take your clothes to a dry cleaner as normal because standard cleaning is unlikely to remove the smoke odor from fabrics.

What’s Fire and Smoke Restoration?

According to experts, the ‘golden hours’ after a fire are the first 48. What you do during this period could determine how the rest of the recovery goes. In short, you want to stabilize the property and take steps that recover a large percentage of it. Some of the mistakes we mentioned in the previous section could reduce this percentage.

As an example, smoke damage and acidic soot can cause corrosion and deterioration after a fire. If these components are present in core areas, it could make the recovery process more expensive and time-consuming.

Of course, we also need to think about the material used to extinguish the fire. While it’s possible to extinguish small fires with a damp towel, others require water or dry chemicals. This, combined with everything else we’ve discussed, and smoke odor, is a damaging concoction for your property.

Therefore, fire and smoke damage restoration services aim to make the most of the golden period after a fire and recover as much of the property as possible. Minimizing damage reduces the cost of repairs for homeowners while also alleviating stress. The benefit of hiring a service such as this is that they have experience and equipment to help your situation – they can look beyond the visible damage and create a strategy to get your home into the best condition possible.

During this process, experts will analyze items based on their loss of value, loss of use, sentimental value, decreased life expectancy, and other factors. Often, they will need to weigh up the cost of getting something repaired against the cost of replacing it. Fortunately, First Call Response can help with this whole process. While communicating with the insurance company, you have a professional service to protect your best interests.

Elsewhere, we also provide a smoke damage cleaning service. This includes emergency boarding, deodorization, reconstruction, product application, and many other services.

Tailored Fire and Smoke Restoration

As we’ve alluded to throughout this guide, no two situations are ever the same. Consequently, we offer a tailored service because one size never fits all. Ultimately, we’ll adjust our approach based on the size of the fire, the property type, and the time since the fire.

After a fire, we recommend reaching out to our passionate team as quickly as possible. As you’ve already learned, time plays an important role in the recovery process. The earlier you contact, the better results you’re likely to see on the other side.

When you contact our smoke damage cleaning service, our first step is to visit your property and review the damage. What is the condition of the property and its contents? From here, we’ll take the appropriate steps to prevent further damage. Often, this is a forgotten step, but these initial stages could help to protect the biggest investment that you’ll make in your life.

Next, we’ll do our best to decontaminate your home or business property from all the nasty elements such as soot, smoke, and dust. Then, we’ll start the process of restoring both your property and the contents inside. In a home, this could mean furniture, appliances, and other belongings. On the other hand, a business property might have machinery and other equipment to restore.

Hopefully, you’ve realized in the last couple of sections that we do everything we can to get your life back to normal. We’ll bring as much of your property and its contents back to its former glory while advising on items that need replacing. With this, you don’t need to worry about a thing. Leave everything in our hands because we’ll even communicate with the insurance company and advise accordingly. Thanks to the nature of our business, we have extensive experience in dealing with insurance companies after fires of all types.

Supporting Local Fire Services

As well as working with you and insurance companies, we also support the local fire services after a fire event. If they were called to extinguish a fire inside your property, we’ll support them in any way we can. For example, the first step is often to board up the property. After serious fires, we’ll need to place boards over windows and doors to secure the building. Simultaneously, we’ll preserve the scene and prevent further damage.

If arson investigators are called in, we’ll follow their directions and assist wherever possible. For instance, they may ask us to secure evidence, offer transportation and storage, or provide debris manipulation services. With extensive resources, we can even provide heavy equipment such as cranes to clear paths and move debris. Why is this important? It makes hauling quicker, clears the way for aerial photos, and makes everything else easier in the smoke damage cleaning service.

In many cases, our resources help to move materials out of the way so that the fire personnel can enter the property safely. Our resources also extend to emergency power, lighting, dumpsters, and more.

FAQs

To finish, we’ve compiled some of the most common questions that we receive for our fire and smoke damage restoration services. We hope to answer all your biggest questions (if not, feel free to get in touch!).

How do I clean my home after a fire?

When cleaning after a fire, the biggest problem is the soot residues. Therefore, it’s not as simple as grabbing a cloth and your usual cleaning products. Instead, you need specialized products that have been designed with smoke, soot, and fire damage in mind. Thankfully, we have the experience to choose the right products and techniques every time. With a tailored approach, this is the best way to clean your property without risking further damage.

What should I do in the aftermath of a fire?

Even after a small fire, everything can seem a little overwhelming. What do you do first? During this stressful time, you need people around you who will help to make your life easier. For example, your first calls should be to the insurance company and disaster relief agency. However, one of the problems with insurance companies is that they’ll likely try to pay as little as possible for your claim. Consequently, you need a professional service that can assess the damage and communicate with insurance companies…this is First Call Response.

In the meantime, locate all your important documents. This includes your home insurance policy, driving license and other forms of identification, and previous records for your home. This being said, always listen to the fire department. If they say that the structure is unsafe for you to enter, they’re worried that something serious could happen with you inside.

How long is the average fire and smoke restoration process?

Unfortunately, there’s no universal answer to this question because it all depends on the type of property and the severity of the fire. While small fires only need short restoration periods, more serious fires may require weeks of hard work. Since the timelines can vary so much, we advise getting in contact with our superb team at First Call Response.

At the very start of the project, our expert team members will visit your property to assess the damage to the building and its contents. After the initial review, we’ll then offer an estimated timeline based on what we’ve found. At this stage, feel free to ask questions and our technicians will answer as best as possible.

How do I contact a smoke damage cleaning service?

Finally, it’s simple. If you want a free fire damage inspection, complete the contact form on our website. To get started, you simply need to provide your name, email address, and a message. After receiving your request, we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. If you prefer, contact our service on the phone: 754-231-3641 Either way, we’ll get back to you quickly because we appreciate the time-sensitive nature of your situation.

As a licensed and insured service in Florida, we’re passionate about helping people in their time of need. Although the situation might seem tough now, we deal with these circumstances every day and see how it gets better over time. We’ll do our best to restore your home and its contents so that you can get back to enjoying life quickly.