As the smoke clears: What to do you need to know about commercial fire and smoke clean up

As with most types of disasters, the damages from a fire may vary widely and depend upon building and situation-specific circumstances. However, in many cases, the series of response and restoration steps that immediately follow a fire are similar from incident to incident. Here are some of the common steps along with brief explanations for why they are important.

Safety Assessment

The first step after any fire is conducting a building safety assessment. Experts need to look for structural issues along with other dangers, such as asbestos or chemicals that could harm people re-entering the building. They also need to determine if anything in the building requires special disposal.

After it has been determined the building is safe, professionals can look more closely at the potential damage to building features, such as the HVAC and electrical systems, to determine what property, documents, and goods might be salvageable.

Securing the Property and Preventing Additional Damage

Since fires are often high-visibility incidents that leave parts of buildings open and exposed, it’s essential to secure the area quickly. Otherwise, curious onlookers, employees or even looters could enter unsafe areas.

Before the real restoration work can begin, you may need to take steps to prevent further damage from the elements to exposed areas of a building. For example, insulating newly exposed pipes from freezing during cold winter months.

Smoke Scent Clean Up

Since the damage from smoke and water increases quickly with time, restoration providers aim to start the clean-up process as soon as it is safely possible. Deodorization is one of the most critical steps in the fire recovery process because odors can have a lasting impact on employees.

Clearly, recovering from a fire involves a lot of work. And while a good restoration provider can often move quickly to help you get part or all of business operations moving again, your contingency plans will also be critical to the speed with which you are able to get back to normal. Depending on the extent of the damage, all of these steps can take time.

If you do experience fire or smoke damage to your business, remember that the professionals of SunGlo Disaster Restoration Specialists are here to help with your clean-up and restoration.