What is the Key to Understanding Fire Damage to Home?

5/12/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO technicians are trained to remediate any level of damage after a fire disaster. Call (850) 469-1160 today to discuss.

Being Knowledgeable and Experienced in All Aspects of Fire Damage to Your Pensacola Home is Where SERVPRO Can Help

Say the words ‘house fire’, and the first image for many people is a burned-out structure with total property loss. The reality is that most damage is due to the residue left behind by smoke and soot. If the fire was slow-burning and quickly extinguished, the home and its contents are restorable to their pre-fire state.

Before we start to repair fire damage to a Pensacola home, it is important to understand which levels of fire damage our response team encounters. The severity of the fire determines the number of personnel, type of equipment, cleaning solutions, and how long we need to be on the job. SERVPRO has determined three levels that define our tasks after a fire has struck your home.

Levels of Fire Damage

Minor Damage – Smoke residues do not affect the entire house or apartment. The amount of residue is light to moderate. Restoration services include dry and wet cleaning of the structure, furniture and personal property. Only minor items (small lamps or paperback books) require replacing, and only a few walls and ceilings need repainting.

Medium Damage – The smoke residues affect more areas of the home. The residue is more pronounced, meaning that wet cleaning is necessary for more property and dry cleaning may not be possible at all. Our technicians can still clean most of the damaged property on the site though. The amount that requires replacement is higher and includes larger items such as furniture. There is heat damage to cabinets, and drywall, wood floors may need refinishing. Smoke odors are much stronger with medium damage and may still linger after cleaning. If so, technicians require additional time and equipment to deodorize your home.

Major Damage – Structure and property damage is severe near the source of the fire. Repair or replacement of interior walls and support beams is needed. Smoke residues are throughout the home and smoke odors are exceptionally powerful and pungent. The structure requires extensive cleaning and deodorization; furniture and other personal property require cleaning using machines and chemicals available only at a SERVPRO facility. Emergency services, including boarding up the home and quick removal of debris, are needed to prevent further loss due to weather, continued residue exposure and possibly trespassers. Our technicians must also establish a source of electricity to support restoration efforts.

Possible Delays in Restoring Fire Damaged Property

When a fire razes your property, the urgency to restore it is usually apparent. However, various obstacles can crop up delaying or prolonging the process. Hurdles can range from regulatory obstacles, limited resources, to a lack of necessary skills. We offer professional restoration services, and from experiences, we can help you overcome most hurdles with ease.

At times of an emergency like fire damage in Pensacola, you might expect help from everyone including the authorities, and not legal obstacles. However, due to overlaps in federal, state and local regulations, it might feel like the authorities are out to sabotage your efforts. Working with a professional restoration team like SERVPRO helps eliminate these hurdles because we know which permit is necessary, which waste disposal method is allowed, and generally how to comply with all regulations.

The Process of Saving Your Valuables

After a fire, there are items to throw away and others to save through restorative cleaning or resurfacing. A hurdle many people face is deciding whether to throw items away especially if they hold sentimental value. It is also possible to throw away salvageable items assuming that the damage is beyond repair. Our SERVPRO technicians rely on their extensive FSRT training when evaluating remnants of a fire incident. We separate the remains into salvageable, unsalvageable and questionable categories. We take the questionable items away for specialized offsite cleaning which can help you save sentimental items that you would otherwise throw away.

Water Damage is Possible

Fires cause severe damage, but in many cases, additional damages still happen long after the embers die down. Typical causes of such additional damage include the water used in the efforts to put out the blaze or the methods used during restoration. Our SERVPRO crews are equipped to extract any water pooling around after a blaze. This helps prevent mold and other related moisture problems. We also use unique cleaning methods such as soda blasting to clean ruined surfaces without causing additional damages.

The period after a fire incident presents various challenges. Call SERVPRO of West Pensacola at (850) 469-1160 to help you overcome any hurdles. We’re Faster to Any Size Disaster!

Learn more about Pensacola.