When your home needs reliable and effective restoration, call Restorerz Emergency Services at (323) 970-4761.
House fires are one of the worst experiences a homeowner can live through, and they’re often so shocking that victims don’t know how to handle the immediate aftermath.
Below, we’ll walk you through what to do after fire damage to save your property and your life.
Call Your Fire Department
House fires are fast-acting destructive forces that only need a few minutes to tear through a building, so the first thing you should do after a fire is call 911 for your local fire department. Even if you think you’ve handled the fire yourself and now only have to deal with the damage, you should still call the fire department.
Fire departments do more than douse flames. They can ensure that you’ve completely eradicated the fire, secure as much of your property as possible, and create a detailed fire report that will help your insurance company provide fitting coverage.
Check on Your Housemates
Immediately after the fire department eliminates the initial threat, you should take time to check on your housemates’ and pets’ health. House fires pose severe health threats like burns, but they have several other hazards as well.
The smoke and soot from house fires can infect your and your housemates’ lungs and lead to severe illness. Many symptoms from inhaling smoke show up after the fire, but you might notice others immediately, and it’s essential to call for medical attention if that is the case.
House fires can have as many mental health impacts as physical ones, so it’s vital to check on your housemates’ emotional states as well. Calming your friends and family’s nerves after a traumatic event and contextualizing that you have the situation under control can save them significant heartache in the future.
Reach Out to Your Insurance Agent
Now that you know what to do after fire damage in the early stages, we’ll look at how you should handle the process hours after the event, starting with contacting your insurance company.
When the insurance agent arrives, you will need to explain how the fire started and the extent of the damage. Then, they will walk you through what to do to move on from this unfortunate experience and file a claim for you to recover finances for your personal property.
Experienced insurance agents have seen hundreds of similar incidents, so they might know how to minimize fire damage after the fact and take small matters into their own hands. For example, some agents might pry open ventilation holes in damaged areas to air out the smoke. This also helps them examine your home and better understand how to file the claim.
Examine Your Home and Prepare Temporary Living Arrangements
Small, contained house fires might not do much to your home overall. In those instances, you can likely stay the night in your house after the fire department and insurance team leave. However, not everyone knows what to do when flames destroy most of their property.
After severe fires, finding a place to live away from your home is essential. Large house fires can weaken your home and leave soot and smoke over every wall and floorboard, which are hazardous to inhale. Both consequences have severe health risks and can lead to fatal illness or injury, but keeping your distance until your property is safe will protect you and your housemates.
Los Angeles Residents can trust Restorerz Emergency Services to secure their homes quickly. We offer a fire damage restoration service in Los Angeles that emphasizes fast action and thorough reconstruction to make your home look as good as new.
Call a Fire Damage Restoration Company
Fire damage restoration companies know precisely what to do after fire damage to preserve as much of your property as possible and make it safe to return to quickly. When the team arrives, they’ll immediately start work on the following services.
Securing Your Property
Fire-ravaged buildings can collapse without warning, even after the flames go away. Therefore, a fire damage restoration company’s first step will be to secure the property, looking for structural weaknesses and reinforcing them. Not only will that let the team work unimpeded, but it will also save your home from additional damage.
Filtering Out Smoke Damage
Smoke can linger in the air and burrow into your floor and walls, even if you’ve ventilated the area. However, it’s essential to remove it for happy, healthy home living. Your fire damage restoration team will filter out every trace of it as soon as they’ve secured your property.
Restorerz Emergency Services uses state-of-the-art fans and filtration equipment to suck smoke out of every nook and cranny and expel it from your living space.
Preventing Water Damage
A fire department’s primary responsibility is to use hoses to extinguish house fires, but their heroics often leave pools of standing water in your home, which can leave stains, attract pests, and rot your flooring and drywall.
Fortunately, the team at Restorerz Emergency Services is as adept at reversing water damage as we are at restoring fire damage. We’ll restore your home no matter what elements damage it.
Finishing Touches
Damage restoration teams know what to do after fire damage to keep you and your home safe. After those services, they’ll move on to work that gets your property looking its best again.
Restorerz Emergency Services will remove soot from stained areas, replace worn-down building materials, and recover as much of your personal items as possible so you can return to your home and a sense of normalcy.
Fire Damage Restoration from Restorerz Emergency Services
Now that you know what to do after fire damage, you can call Restorerz Emergency Services to move on from this experience as quickly as possible. We offer expert fire and soot damage restoration that effectively restores your home.
Call Restorerz Emergency Services today at (323) 970-4761 for fire damage restoration or to learn more about effectively getting the smell of smoke out of your home.