How many times conduct Home Fires Arise

LocalNet360- Cleaning Your Home after a Fire in Your homer
Fires destroy billions of dollars of property in the United States and Canada every year. There is a residential fire every 84 seconds. Last year, there were almost 400,000 fires in the United States causing approximately $8 million dollars of property loss.

Fire In Your Home-What should you know?

While some fires are a total loss and there is nothing, or very little left to save, many fires are much smaller in scope. In some cases there is little structural damage to the residence because there were little or no flames, or because it was extinguished quickly. Even in those cases, however, there is usually significant smoke/soot damage to the home. And, when a portion of the structure has been destroyed, other portions may be structurally sound, and may be able to be restored.

Mitigating the damage and cleaning and restoring the structure to the pre-loss condition are jobs for restoration professionals.

• The first conce
in every fire situation is safety and to make certain it is structurally safe to enter the residence. It is important to be sure the structure is safe before any evaluation is done or work begins.
• Once inside, the next consideration must be the products of incomplete combustion (called PIC) that result from every fire, and typically fill the structure even after the fire is out. Every fire creates literally hundreds, if not thousands of byproducts, PICs, all of which are hazardous, and some areeven proven carcinogens. In most cases, considerationshould be given to wearing some type of respirator.
• Ventilation is very important and if possible,the contaminants in the home should be evacuated tothe outside. This can be done with professional airmovers or even standard box fans. They should beplaced in a window, blowing out, with other windowsopen, ejecting the contaminated air and allowingfresh air to come into the home.
• The smoke/soot residue that is present throughoutthe structure contains a multitude of acids. Theseacids are byproducts of combustion wheneveranything burns. If the material is petroleum-based(plastics, etc.), then there are far more acids thanif only natural materials burn (i.e. wood), and theyare more aggressive acids. In just a few days, ora week, these acids will begin to etchmaterials that are usually considered to be relativelyimpervious to heat damage, such as all metals,glass, crystal, china, etc. Because of the potentialfor corrosion, consideration should be given to“pre-treating” metals and other at-risk materialsthroughout the home. Pre-treatment is accomplishedby applying a light coating of oil (vegetable oil,3-in-1, etc.) to the susceptible items. This willprotect those surfaces from pitting, and will be easilyremoved in the course of the final cleaning.

A restoration professional will evaluate the walls and wall coverings in every room to determinernwhether they should be replaced, or if they can be successfully restored to a pre-loss condition. In most cases, if they have not been damaged directly by the fire or by excessive heat, they do not need to be removed. Often they can be restored.

A professional will perform testing to determinethe appropriate product and mix ratio to do eachsurface. It is possible to remove theheaviest and greasiest residue with products thatare very safe and environmentally friendly. The testing will alsodetermine if the surfaces can be cleaned to save orcleaned to paint and recover. Cleaned-to-save meansthat professional cleaning will save thesurface, and will restore it to a pre-loss condition.Cleaned-to-paint means that the smoke/soot residueis so heavy that after successful cleaning, a paintedsurface will need to be sealed and then repainted;or, if there is wall covering, it will need to beremoved, the surface cleaned and sealed, and thecovering then replaced.

Fixtures such as sinks, tubs, toilets, etc., will becleaned as part of the structure. These are typicallyvery durable materials and will be cleaned withthe same system as the room they are in. Specialattention is always given to trim, baseboards,window frames, etc., since these typically have adifferent finish than the rest of the room and needto be cleaned with the most appropriate method andproducts.

“Removing the source” is always the first step inevery odor control situation. Often, cleaning thewalls and ceilings, etc., of a structure will eliminatethe odor from the fire. When there is a bit of odorremaining, then the restoration professional willconsider the best method of controlling that odor asan additional step in the complete restoration effort.

As you begin to learn about the dangers and prevention pertaining to Fire, Water and Mold damage in your home or business, you will better understand what steps to take to protect your family, employees, pets, personal belongings, business records, equipment, building structure, landscaping and surrounding areas. More importantly, in addition to knowing what steps you can take to aide in prevention, many of these same techniques will help you to mitigate risks in case of an emergency related to fire, water or mold damages should they happen to you. As stated earlier in this series, the more you know about the dangers of Fire, Water and Mold, the better prepared you will be when disaster strikes and in addition to mitigating risks, you may one day help save the life of someone you love as well as yourself, because disaster can strike anyone, anywhere at any time and it is up to you to gain the knowledge to protect your family, home and business and know when to call the professionals who can only respond after the emergency strikes.

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