SERVPRO Rushes to Your Gilbert Home to Mitigate Fire Damage and Odors

4/8/2019 (Permalink)

Gilbert Homeowners Rest Easy During Fire Damage Restoration When Our Green SERVPRO Truck Is on the Scene

Acting Fast on Fire Damage in Gilbert Is the Key to Minimizing Loss

We know when someone contacts our emergency response team to come to their Gilbert property after a fire, it is a stressful situation, and you need help when you call, not wishing to wait for regular business hours. Usually, within four hours of your initial call, our technicians arrive on site to begin the process of cleaning up and restoring your residential or commercial property.

Why Fast Action is Necessary Against Fire Damage

The more time that passes between fire and cleanup efforts, the more the soot and odors have the opportunity to embed deeper and spread. During your initial phone call to SERVPRO, the emergency response technician gives tips if you are remaining in the home to lessen the spread of soot and smoke residue to unaffected areas of the property.

Once SERVPRO of Gilbert technicians are at the property, they immediately determine the scope and scale of the fire, to where it spread and the amount of damage. For localized fires in a portion of a home or business, our technicians contain the area by putting up barriers to limit the spread of soot and concentrate environmental cleaning efforts. Water is frequently a part of fire damage. Any standing water left from firefighting efforts is extracted immediately, and the area set up with air movers and dehumidifiers to dry quickly.

Specialized Cleaning Methods are Needed for Fire Damage

Mitigation of fire loss does not have a single solution. There are different types of smoke and knowing which type or types our technicians are dealing with is vital to choosing the proper cleaning methods, that is why we never guess, we test. The types we encounter most often are:

Wet smoke - can be thick, smears when rubbed. Most often associated with burning plastics and synthetic materials.

Dry smoke-produces a dry, powder-like residue, most often associated with burned paper or wood.

Protein-generally does not produce a visible smoke residue, however, can stain paints or varnish and often leaves a calling card of a very pungent odor.

Fuel or Oil Soot-most often occurs with furnace puff back events. Soot tags, resembling spider webs, can be challenging for a smear-free removal.

Cleaning Methods for Soot and Ash

Once the type of residue is determined, our local Gilbert area technicians get to work using the proper type for wet or dry cleaning as appropriate. Multiple kinds of residues can be found in a single area depending on the types of items that were burned in the fire. Ash is acidic and the longer it remains on walls, floors, and objects, the more they can deteriorate.

The structure is wiped down and depending on the type of wall covering, that may be enough to remove the residue. In cases where the soot has penetrated too deeply, or the surfaces are marred, SERVPRO cleans to "prepare for painting." This action deodorizes, limits VOC volatile organic compounds, and readies the surface to accept a new coat of paint with proper adherence.

Our technicians are trained in the remediation of fire damaged contents. Our goal is always to restore instead of replacing whenever possible. Nothing is thrown away without the permission of the property owner. Our technicians use their training to deep clean porous items such as upholstered furnishings, draperies and rugs. Other items such as electronics, wood furnishings, and kitchen items may be cleaned in place or removed and sent to our facility for cleaning. A full list of things removed for cleaning is provided to the adjuster and owner to ensure everyone is informed of each step of the cleanup.

Removing Reminders: Odor Control

Deodorization of a property after a fire requires more than spraying the area with a coverup scent. That is a short term solution that does nothing to neutralize the cause of the odor. SERVPRO technicians are certified in odor control methods and have various techniques to control and neutralize residual smoke odors spending on the level of treatment needed.

Air scrubbers fitted with HEPA filters can capture odor-causing soot particles as small as 0.3 microns, the average human eye can see down to around 40 microns. When the residues, soot, and ash are removed through cleaning the structure, contents, and air, in many cases the odor is diminished enough no further mitigation is necessary.

In cases where more robust odor control efforts are needed such as with protein fires, thermal fogging is another method our technicians use frequently. Using an odor-busting solvent heated and delivered as a fog, a technician spreads it over the same pathways as the smoke when the fire occurred. The solvent penetrates and overtakes smokey odors effectively neutralizing them in porous objects.

The HVAC can spread soot, and our technicians do a thorough inspection and cleaning if needed of the ductwork to ensure there are no lingering reminders of the fire whenever the heat or cooling is turned on.

Restoration and Building Services

Once your property has been cleaned and odors neutralized, there are often areas of the home or business that require repair or even rebuilding as they were not restorable through cleaning efforts. Charred drywall or damaged paint on walls from fire fighting efforts may need replacing or repainting to return to their preloss condition. Instead of having the headache of coordinating with a general contractor, SERVPRO offers these services to you.

If it is something as small as boarding up windows or placing a tarp on a damaged roof to completely rebuilding a fire damaged room from the ground up, our owner has over 20-years experience as a general contractor, and under his guidance, our technicians have the expertise and equipment to rebuild your loss.

SERVPRO of Gilbert knows that fire damage never takes a day off and when you need us, our emergency response team arrives on site within hours after your initial call. Our goal is to use our equipment and training to make your fire loss "Like it never even happened."

Learn about out Gilbert, AZ local fire department.  https://www.gilbertaz.gov/departments/fire-and-rescue/station-locations