How Do Content Management Technicians Protect My Belongings After a Fire?

6/11/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO Provides Oceanside Property Owners with Fire Loss Cleanup and Restoration--Even Pack-Out Services

Our restoration professionals can clean and restore damaged items on-site and in our Oceanside SERVPRO facility

Many actions must get taken to recover an Oceanside home after a fire loss incident, but our SERVPRO professionals have gotten trained to provide a fast and confident response. Fire & Smoke Restoration Technicians (FSRT) accredited through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) can provide a wide range of corrective actions as soon as we arrive at a fire-damaged property.

Recovering fire damage in Oceanside homes and businesses can mean several different individual tasks. While homeowners might consider the most vital efforts to be approached like fire debris removal and clearing harmful soot from surfaces, it is equally important to consider what can and should happen to the contents of your home. Protecting your belongings involves careful assessments and choosing the ideal restoration approach based on affected materials, the damaged area, and the personnel involved. 

What Items Require Restoration and Recovery?

A thorough inspection and assessment can determine whether or not specific contents within your home require more concentrated cleaning and restoration. In many situations, outer lying personal belongings in less affected areas of the residence can be relocated elsewhere on the property to prevent damages. There are some specific conditions following fire losses that can require on-site restoration or more direct off-site recovery solutions at our SERVPRO facility. Some of these conditions include:

• Residue/Soot Damage – Residues from wet smoke or soot can adhere to the surfaces of your belongings and become a threatening presence. With the acidic composition of soot, prolonged exposure can stain or destroy surfaces beneath the residue without prompt action. 
• Odor Damages – Smoke odors can penetrate multiple areas of the damaged house after a fire loss. They can also become embedded and trapped in fabrics, textiles, carpeting, and specific contents of your home. 
• Water Damage – Extinguishment is a valuable phase during a fire emergency, but it can leave many areas of the house contending with water damage. Saturated personal belongings require advanced drying efforts to return to their original conditions. 

Can You Help Protect Damaged Belongings?

Before our professionals arrive, depending on the potential hazards in the property, it is possible to relocate some of your possessions to safer areas of the house. If environmental or structural hazards exist, it is not advisable for you or other members of your family to remain on the property. Most fire recovery situations require our experienced professionals to don complete personal protective equipment from Tyvek coverall suits and gloves to respirators and boots.

What On-Site Recovery Options Exist?

It is always the objective of our technicians to restore your possessions on-site. We can appreciate how unnerving and overwhelming it can be to entrust your belongings to our team for off-site restoration, so we work to limit the number of items that meet these criteria when possible. Several direct strategies can prevent your belongings from being relocated by our pack-out procedure, including the following:

• Surface Cleaning – Light soiling can often be wiped clean with our potent cleaning products. Assessments into the thickness and severity of residues and soiling must happen to ensure that smearing and staining do not occur.
• Deodorization – Smoke and burning odors are not uncommon for the belongings in your house after a fire. With multiple restoration tools, including thermal foggers and hydroxyl generators, we can work to neutralize and eliminate these foul odors in the environment and the affected items. 
• Drying – Because water damage can be a common threatening condition for your possessions after a fire loss, drying these belongings on-site can save time and money on more direct restoration efforts at our SERVPRO facility. 

Is Pack-Out the Best Approach for Content Restoration?

While it is not always the most sought-out approach in our restoration arsenal, pack-out focuses on the efforts necessary to overcome substantial losses to the contents in your home. With soot and odor threats, especially, there are advantages to the advanced stationary tools and areas of our warehouse for fire-damaged items. Some of the benefits of off-site recovery include:

• Ultrasonic Tank (Soot Cleaning)
• Ozone Chamber (Odor Removal)
• Safe, Climate-Controlled Storage

Fire losses can be widespread threats in your property, which can quickly impact many of the belongings and possessions throughout the house. With experienced content management professionals, we can offer both on-site and off-site restoration solutions to help. Give our SERVPRO of Long Beach / Oceanside team a call 24/7 at (516) 536-1801.