Secondary Damage After A Fire

6/17/2021 (Permalink)

A fire can be devastating and often leaves many types of damage behind in Haines City/Polk City, FL. Try not to forget about any of the secondary aspects, such as smoke cleaning, to make sure that your home is fully rehabilitated and livable.

Smoke Odor

Before you can remove the smell, you need to eliminate any and all sources of smoke damage odor, such as burned materials. Then you can start to circulate the air and filter it. You may need some specialized equipment to accomplish this:

• Air filtration devices
• Ozone machines
• Thermal foggers
• Hydroxyl generators

Soot Residue

Even if an area of the home or a particular object wasn't burned, the particles carried by smoke can still blacken what fire did not touch. Soot, otherwise known as carbon residue, is the result of organic matter that hasn't burned completely. It can smear and permanently stain your walls or surfaces if you use a normal sponge or rag. Instead, use a dry cleaning sponge that can absorb this type of deposit. Be sure to ventilate the room by opening windows and turning on fans before tackling this kind of smoke cleaning.

Water Damage

It may seem counter-intuitive, but water damage resulting from the fire-fighting process is as common as smoke odor after a fire. If water issues are left alone, they can quickly turn into the much bigger problem of mold. Some materials cannot be thoroughly dried, so you may have to get rid of carpeting, insulation or certain types of drywall. Be sure to remove and dry all other items and ventilate the room as much as possible. Bring in a water damage remediation specialist to be sure that everything is taken care of properly.

Unfortunately, your work isn't done after you've cleared out the burned materials from a fire. Smoke cleaning, soot removal and water damage will give you just as much trouble as the initial damage. Hire a company that can do it all to make your life less stressful.