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A fire in a home always proves to be life altering. Much as it is one of man’s most effective tool in his day-to-day activities, fire can still take away family members, memories, belongings, and even pets. Fire has always been a force greater than man.

Fire damage restoration can be a long and painful task for most people. It adds more stress if you are totally unprepared and have no knowledge on how to progress through it. Before starting any fire damage restoration efforts, you have to get in touch with your insurance agent. If you are living in a rented house or property, you also have to get in touch with the owner. Your insurance adjuster will be able to help you with setting up any immediate repairs that need to be done. If you are unable to reach these people, get in touch with your local fire department’s damage restoration team.

The following is a list of items to consider when presented with a smoke damage/fire damage situation:

1 - If your house has been severely damaged and you need to seek temporary shelter, make sure that you remove all your valuables first from you house. If you are permanently moving to another area, do not forget to inform the relevant authorities so they know where to find you in addition to your bank, the local utility companies, etc.

2 - Fire damage restoration in a structurally damaged house usually requires a permit. When doing the job, make sure you wear proper clothing. This includes rubber gloves and boots.

3 - Check your canned goods as well as jarred foods. If the cans do not have bulges, dents, or signs of rust, you can clean them with soap and water and keep for future use. If the labels have already come off, use a marker to label them. Bulging or dented cans should be disposed of immediately.

4 - Fruits left inside your freezer can be refrozen if they still smell good. Vegetables can be re-frozen f you can still see some ice crystals in them. If not, and they are still in good condition, consume them immediately. Otherwise, throw them out. Meat should be cooked thoroughly before being served. If it’s already emitting a bad smell, throw it out immediately as bacteria has already started to grow and consume it.

5- If there are rooms in your house that have not been damaged, seal them off to prevent soot as well as the burnt smoke odor from spreading to them.

6 - Use plastic to seal off rooms that you are working on. Vacuum surfaces thoroughly to ensure that you remove all silt and ash. Air conditioning filters should be changed to prevent the smoke or burnt odor from spreading.

7 - When cleaning painted walls, tri-sodium phosphate mixed with water has been proven to effective in removing soot and smoke. Work should be done from the floor going up. Fire damage restoration cannot be done on wallpapered walls so you have to get in touch with your local dealer for replacements.

8 - Since most of your furniture would have been damaged by water used to put out the fire, you might be tempted to let your wooden furniture dry out in the sun. Don’t! Wet wood could easily warp when exposed to heat.

9 - Do not use strong chemicals when cleaning furniture. Flax Soap has been proven to be quite effective in cleaning wood as well as vinyl.

10 - Mattresses that have fire damage should be disposed of. It would be very hard for you to remove smoke and odor from them.

11 - Locks and hinges should be thoroughly wiped clean. To ensure that they could still function, put oil on them as soon as you have removed all traces of soot.

12 - If you have belongings made of leather, they should be wiped clean using a damp cloth and then dried with a clean cloth. They should not be exposed to sun or heat. Leather books can be dried by placing them on their spine with the pages open to keep the latter from wrinkling. Alternating drying and pressing will prevent mildew from growing.

13 - Corn starch or talc are also good absorbers of water. Sprinkle them on damp pages of your books then brush off when the pages have dried.

14 - Use baking soda with mixed with water to remove odors from your refrigerator. Opening a box of baking soda or placing a piece of activated charcoal inside your refrigerator can also help absorb odors.

15 - If you feel that you cannot restore some of your belongings on your own, it is always best to call a local fire damage restoration team.

Fire can be man’s friend or foe. Either way, it should not be something that would take away our life’s joy. Being prepared is always the best solution.

Osmund Aft distributes information on water issues for Peekskill, NY Water Damage Restoration and Moldy Document Restoration