Things You Might Save in Your Monroe Home after Fire Damage

4/5/2023 (Permalink)

Fire damage restoration includes debris and odor removal from your Monroe home. Call SERVPRO to get the process started.

SERVPRO Evaluates Monroe Homes Recommending the Best Fire Restoration Approaches

A fire has varied impacts on a home. Significant damage to your valuables can demoralize you because you may not know what you can save. Even if insurance can cater for the cost of replacing items lost to a fire in your Monroe home, you might still prefer to keep things that have sentimental value. The materials that makeup items are the main determinants of whether you can save them. Glass and metal items are more likely to be salvageable than wood and fabrics, which deteriorate quickly from heat exposure. 

How a Monroe fire damage incident unfolds also determines what can be salvaged or not. When firefighting is timely, damage from flames and heat is contained before spreading over vast areas. Therefore, the main issues are smoke deposits and moisture accumulation. Smoke residues are dark and acidic, so they cause significant soiling and staining. Our SERVPRO technicians help reverse this type of deterioration thorough cleaning and drying. 

Salvageable items include:

• Kitchenware
• Smoke damaged electronics
• Lightly charred furniture
• Glass and metal structural materials

Kitchenware primarily includes glass and ceramic utensils. Exposure to extreme heat conditions can cause cracking. However, the most common effect is deep soiling and staining from the soot accumulating on their surfaces. Even items locked away in cabinets are heavily soiled since smoke driven by convection currents concentrates in colder areas of a property during a fire. Our SERVPRO technicians simplify the restoration of such items using advanced immersion cleaning such as ultrasonic cleaners, eliminating any lingering soot staining, "Like it never even happened." The ultrasonic cleaner has a tank where the soiled items are dipped. The system then produces millions of bubbles and implodes them instantaneously, creating an effective yet non-invasive agitation force that strips away stubborn soils and stains from the surface of items.

Light or Moderate Fire Damage

You can salvage many items with light or moderate damage from heat exposure or residue accumulation. Identifying such damage early and kick-starting restoration procedures in time improves the chances of salvaging them. An example of light damage is an accumulation of smoke residues in electronic items or appliances. Slight charring of furniture items can be light or moderate damage. 

Electronics can be saved if not directly affected by the flames. They require a unique restoration approach since their internal components are delicate and can be easily damaged if cleaned with water or if you power the item when the circuit board is caked with soot residues. 

Salvaging Electronics Requires

• Dry cleaning to remove surface residues
• Damp wiping to clean wet soils or stains
• Maintaining room temperatures above the dew point

Since soot is essentially carbon, it readily conducts electricity. When its circuit boards are layered with soot residues, powering an item can lead to short circuits and thus permanent damage. Our SERVPRO technicians clean the exteriors and prepare appliances for inspection and cleaning by a third party specializing in this process. Since the air in a home is humid after fire damage, corrosion of internal components is another risk that might leave your electronics unsalvageable. Our SERVPRO technicians set up dehumidifiers to regulate humidity levels or supply heating to prevent cooling to the dew point whereby condensation would occur, leading to rust.

SERVPRO of Monroe / West Monroe offers access to specialist skills and advanced technologies, thus improving the chances of salvaging items affected by fire damage. Call us at (318) 345-5121.