Post Fire Restoration-What to do.

1/20/2015 (Permalink)

Fire damage in a home in Scranton, Pa which SERVPRO was called to mitigate.

The time after a fire incident in your home is critical to the way the fire damage restoration progresses. However, there are various things you can do as a homeowner to make the process flawless and easier. 

Notify Your Insurance Provider
The insurance provider will help pay for damages you have incurred because of the fire. The insurance company will dispatch an insurance adjustor to assess the fire damage and come up with a valid inventory. 

While at this, don’t throw any items away, however damaged it seems. Every item will be assessed when making an inventory.

Contact the Fire Damage Restoration Company
Go ahead and contact the fire restoration company as early as possible. This is because damage can extend to other areas of your home when left unattended. The company will come to restore your possessions from fire, vandalism, water, and smoke. It doesn’t matter the time the incident happened, the company works 7 days a week and also provides emergency services as well.

The time after a fire incident in your home is critical to the way the fire damage restoration progresses.

Water Removal
After a firefighting effort, you end up with water everywhere. This water ends up soaking into your carpets, furniture, upholstery, drapes, walls, and wooden floor. The result is moisture all over the house, which encourages growth of mold and mildew. 

Additionally, moisture degrades a number of materials in your home, leading to rusting appliances, and rotting wood. For your information, a wet carpet is 50 percent much weaker than a dry one. 

You can help by using a wet-dry vacuum or an air-moving machine to remove the water from your home. Additionally, you can leave your windows open to balance the humidity in the rooms. 

Removal of water is essential to retain the life of your carpet, furniture and other items affected. The water restoration company removes moisture up to 95 percent. The company uses advanced extractor equipment without disturbing your possessions or lifting the carpet.

Remove the Odor
Smoke causes a variety of lung and health problems due to prolonged exposure. Opening the window helps, but won’t be effective in the long run. Smoke particles attach on various items in your home – drapes, carpets, ceilings, walls, furniture, decor, and cabinets. The company makes sure that there are no smoke particles remaining in the home. 

One of the major targets of smoke is your HVAC system, especially the air ducts. Smoke collects in these ducts and is released into your room long after the fire has died down. As a homeowner, you don’t have the capacity to clean your ducts properly, which is why you need the services of a professional restoration company to get rid of the odor. After removing lingering smoke, the company uses an ozone machine that breaks down the smoke molecules in your home totally.

Final Thoughts
As a homeowner, you also have a role to play in restoring your home to its past state. With the input of fire damage restoration experts, you get a home near to the state before the fire incident.  So, when a disaster occurs contact SERVPRO of Carbondale/Clarks Summit/Old Forge to begin the mitigation and restoration process. We are the Scranton/Wilkes-barre premier specialty cleaning company and we proudly serve all of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne and Wyoming counties.