Cutler Bay Homeowners Grapple with Fire Odors

6/21/2022 (Permalink)

Fire damage can be overwhelming when it happens in your Cutler Bay home. Call SERVPRO right away after an event.

Cutler Bay Residents Can Call SERVPRO for Fire Restoration and Malodor Removal

In small-scale incidents, home fire damage can leave behind lingering stains and odors that homeowners in Cutler Bay cannot entirely mitigate. Unfortunately, some DIY solutions can chemically alter soot or spread stains and residues, which can, in turn, worsen malodors. These cleanup strategies can also impact home insurance claims.

SERVPRO technicians in Cutler Bay can render fire damage cleanup according to the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification's (IICRC) standards. Mitigation includes contents cleanup and necessary structural repairs to improve home comfort and indoor air quality after a fire.

How Can Homeowners Deal with Fire Damage Odors?

While some do-it-yourself approaches can have the opposite of the intended effect, there are several steps homeowners can take to minimize smoke odors and prevent fires from spreading before they occur.

• Make minimal contact with burnt surfaces or items near where the disaster occurred. Cooking fires, particularly those that include the ignition of proteins like meat or fish, leave behind odorous, greasy residues that are nearly invisible to the naked eye. These require specialized cleaners to address in full. Contacting items after a fire can unintentionally spread protein residues and odors.
• Avoid using wet cleaning solutions on soils. Homeowners are also advised to avoid cleaning smoke damage by hand, as this can accidentally smear soot or turn soils acidic on metals.
• Keep HVAC clean. When a fire does flare up, soot and debris accumulate in vents and can spread odors. Smoke damage can prove incredibly impactful on indoor air quality for HVAC systems that have not been cleaned or serviced in over a year. SERVPRO performs HVAC inspections during cleanup to ensure that vents are clean and free of malodor-causing soils, which can collect dust and dirt that can also impact ventilation and odor control

Homeowners are advised to document damage after it occurs if it is safe to enter the property after a fire. Photos and videos are essential for getting the most out of an insurance claim. Contact the insurance company as soon as possible after disaster strikes and occupants' safety is guaranteed. Property owners do not have to wait for a claims adjuster to arrive before contacting a restoration company like SERVPRO.

SERVPRO Fire Cleanup Restores Affected Surfaces and Contents

Cutler Bay SERVPRO fire damage professionals certified by the IICRC can perform the following tasks:

• Document damage to property and take inventory of affected items per room to aid homeowners and claims adjusters
• Perform cleanup of light fire soils with dry cleaning sponges and mild detergents before moving on to more heavy-duty mitigation
• Perform HVAC cleaning with agitation tools, EPA-registered sanitation solutions, and deodorization of sheet metal and duct board vents with ultra-low volume foggers
• Address heavy char on surfaces with alkaline cleaners that cut through acidic soot and abrasion blasting with such media as dry ice and soda ash, which can also reduce fire odors
• Clean protein residues with specialized enzyme digesters, which turn filmy amino acids into water-soluble byproducts that can be cleaned and deodorized

Homeowners seeking emergency-response cleanup can reach out to SERVPRO of Cutler Bay at (305) 278-8484 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays. We're Faster To Any Size Disaster and prepared to salvage damaged properties.