What Do I Do After A House Fire: Moving Forward

2/2/2021 (Permalink)

When a fire ignites in your home, your home and your personal belongings are placed in jeopardy. Fires can leave a path of destruction, complete with soot and smoke damage. In addition to the physical damage, a fire can alter and change your life as you know it, leaving you ready to do whatever you can in order to return things to normal. Before taking action to combat fire damage in your home, it is important to understand that just one wrong move can exacerbate the damage. There are two crucial pieces when confronting fire damage in your home: mitigating the damage and preventing future fires. For several of our expert Fire Damage Tips and steps that you can take to protect your home from future fires, keep reading.

Fire Damage Restoration Tips

With our many years of experience in mitigating fire damage and cleaning smoke damage, we have compiled a list of Fire Damage Tips. The following may be helpful in understanding the safest ways of dealing with your home’s fire damage:

1. Decrease Movement

Even the act of placing your foot down on the floor can cause fire soot particles to jump up into the air and land on nearby objects, therefore imposing further damage. In order to best protect your home’s furniture, upholstery, carpets, and other objects from unnecessary damage, refrain from walking throughout your home as best you can and if you must move, be sure to exercise caution.

1. Don’t Attempt to Clean Without Professional Guidance

More harm than good can come from unguided efforts to clean fire-damaged items and surfaces in your home. Rather, consult skilled fire damage cleaners prior to taking any actions to clean damaged objects. It is also wise to steer clear of any electronic devices or appliances in your home, as coming into contact with them after they have been exposed to intense heat, fire, or water can be incredibly dangerous.

1. Keep Hands Clean

When cleaning and handling fire-damaged objects, be sure that your hands are clean in an effort to protect items from enduring any additional damage from soot particles or other substances. Wearing clean gloves throughout the fire damage cleanup process can be helpful in achieving this goal.

Preventing Future Fires

While restoring your home after a destructive fire, it is important to take the time to protect your home from a similar situation happening again. According to the American Red Cross, the following are a few preventative measures that are effective in preventing future fire damage or smoke damage to the home:

1. Check on Your Smoke Detectors

Smoke detector batteries should be checked and replaced on a regular basis in order to keep smoke detectors functioning to the best of their ability. Be sure that your smoke detectors are located in different areas of your home so that they are able to pick up smoke from anywhere. By interconnecting the smoke detectors in your home, you can save valuable time, as all of the alarms in your home will sound when one detector senses smoke.

1. Fire-Proof Your Home

There are plenty of options these days for fire-resistant home furnishings, from curtains to sofas. By investing in fire-resistant furnishings for your home, you can reduce the chances of any future fire spreading quickly.

1. Limit Fire Risks

In even the most trivial activities, such as using electronic devices or heating rooms of your home, there are some steps that you can take to prevent a fire from igniting. Many residential fires ignite as a result of heating sources, so it is important to check that your stove tops, chimney, or other heating sources are clean before putting them to use. Lastly, it is imperative that old, frayed, or damaged electrical cords are not used, even if they still appear to do their job. Therefore, it is important not to wait to replace damaged cords.

Fire Damage? Call SERVPRO

Residential fires often leave homeowners overwhelmed and confused as to what comes next. This is where we come in. Pick up the phone and call SERVPRO of Metro Pittsburgh East at (412) 672-5400 for our professional restoration fire damage expertise and guidance. Our team will respond immediately and arrive onsite to assess the damage. SERVPRO has your back and is standing by, ready to lend a helping hand to give you peace of mind after any fire damage or smoke damage emergency in your home. For more of our Fire Damage Tips that can help you understand what you can do before help arrives, click here.