Has a fire left your home with soot and smoke damage? Call the trusted professionals of Restorerz Emergency Services at (323) 997-4978 for fast cleanup and restoration.
It can happen to anyone: You’re cooking dinner, and the next thing you know, a grease splatter leads to a raging fire. Containing and extinguishing the flames quickly is important, but it doesn’t mean that fire damage won’t spread throughout your home. Smoke and soot particles can spread to areas that weren’t not directly affected by the fire and cause health issues and additional damage if you don’t remove soot immediately.
Dealing with soot residue and smoke damage requires specialized equipment and techniques. When homeowners need fire damage restoration in Los Angeles, they call Restorerz Emergency Services for fast, professional service. These experienced professionals can be at your home in 60 minutes or less to remove soot from walls, eliminate smoke odors, and restore your home to its pre-fire condition.
When you leave fire cleanup to the professionals, you avoid making the problem worse with ineffective cleaning methods. You can also avoid the following impacts on your home and family’s health.
1. Breathing Problems
Fires produce soot when the fuel source (whatever is on fire) doesn’t burn completely. The black, powdery substance sticks to surfaces. It also ends up in the HVAC system, meaning that the next time you turn on the heat or AC, the soot particles will fill the air — and your family will breathe them in.
Breathing in soot can irritate the lungs and cause serious respiratory conditions in humans and animals. If anyone in your family already has a breathing issue like asthma or COPD, breathing in soot can make it worse and even lead to a medical emergency. It’s also possible for soot particles to enter the bloodstream, causing complications like heart attacks in people with heart disease.
These potential health hazards mean that proper safety equipment is necessary during cleanup to remove soot. Attempting to clean up yourself without the right gear can make you sick, so leave the job to the professionals.
2. Skin and Eye Irritation
Coming in contact with soot particles after a fire can also irritate your skin and eyes. Soot contains many hazardous substances, including acids, metals, and chemicals that can cause painful skin irritation. It’s especially important to remove soot particles embedded in fabrics or anything else that comes in contact with the skin to prevent reactions.
Soot particles in the air can also irritate your eyes, making them red and itchy. Fire damage cleanup can release more microscopic particles into the air and increase discomfort.
3. Odors
One of the longest-lasting impacts of any fire is the ashy, smoky smell that can linger for weeks or months. Even if the smoke damage isn’t immediately visible, the smell of smoke is hard to miss. Smoke odors come from soot particles trapped in fabrics and carpets, and without prompt cleanup, the particles penetrate the fibers and become harder to remove.
A professional restoration service has the equipment to remove soot from soft surfaces and eliminate odors. Furniture, carpets, window treatments, and other fabrics will smell fresh without any signs of smoke odors or soot residue.
4. Stains
Surveying the scene after a fire, you’ll see smoke damage and notice soot on surfaces. If you don’t remove soot immediately, the damage will worsen, with stains appearing on surfaces after a few days. Walls and floors can develop yellow smoke and soot stains. Not removing soot residue will leave porous materials like granite with permanent discoloration. Soot residue can also permanently tarnish metal surfaces.
Using the proper cleaning and restoration methods and equipment is critical to preventing soot stains. Otherwise, you risk spreading the particles around or not fully removing them, increasing the risk of permanent damage.
5. Corrosion
The acids in soot particles that cause skin and eye irritation can also wreak havoc on metal. After a fire, metal surfaces in your home, like doorknobs, faucets, and even plumbing pipes, can corrode if you don’t remove soot. At the very least, soot will permanently tarnish the metal.
Metal surfaces need special cleaning and treatment after soot exposure to prevent long-term damage. Although applying cooking oil can temporarily protect metal surfaces from corrosion, a professional, detailed cleaning will restore them to their original condition.
6. HVAC Problems
As mentioned, soot particles can enter your HVAC system and affect the air quality inside your home. That’s not the only concern, though. Your HVAC system has many metal parts, including ductwork, that are vulnerable to damage from the corrosive soot residue.
Calling a smoke damage and fire cleanup specialist to inspect and clean your HVAC system is critical to preventing long-term problems. The acidic soot particles can cause widespread damage to the system components, eventually causing malfunctions or even a total breakdown. A damaged HVAC system is a fire hazard itself, so having it checked out after a fire should be a priority.
Call Restorerz Emergency Services for Fast, Professional Smoke Damage Cleanup
A fire in your home is a stressful experience. Even when the fire department contains the blaze and damage is minimal, the lingering soot residue and smoke odors are a lasting reminder of what happened. You may be able to clean up some of the mess, but unless you have the training and equipment to remove soot, your family and home are still in danger.
For that reason, one of the first things to do after fire damage is to call the professionals of Restorerz Emergency Services for help. Our team of trained and certified professionals is standing by to remove soot and smoke, eliminate odors, and restore your property after an emergency. As the top fire smoke restoration service in Los Angeles, you can count on us to be there quickly to clean up and get your home back to normal. To request immediate assistance, dial (323) 997-4978, and we’ll be on our way.