Services

Fire & smoke

Thoughtful recovery for the spaces and belongings that matter most, with one team guiding every stage.

How can we help?

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Overview

What Fire & smoke work involves.

Fire damage is rarely confined to what burned. Smoke travels through the building and settles on surfaces the flames never reached, and the water used to put the fire out becomes a second, separate problem that has to be dried like any other water loss.

The work covers securing the property, cleaning soot from structure and contents, treating odor at the source rather than masking it, and rebuilding what could not be cleaned. Contents are inventoried and cleaned off site where that gives them a better chance.

Pro tip

Do not wipe soot off the walls before we arrive. Dry soot lifts cleanly; smeared soot gets pushed into the paint, and a wall that could have been cleaned then has to be repainted.

Damage and contents assessment
Emergency board-up and site security
Soot and smoke residue cleanup
Odor treatment and thermal fogging
HVAC and duct cleaning
Contents pack-out and cleaning
Structural cleaning and sealing
Reconstruction and refinishing

Our process

How the work runs.

Assess and secure

We document the loss, board up openings and make the property safe to work in before anything else starts.

Clean the soot

Different residues need different methods. Dry, wet and abrasive cleaning are chosen surface by surface so nothing gets driven in further.

Treat the odor

Cleaning removes most of it. Sealing, thermal fogging and HVAC cleaning deal with what has soaked into porous material.

Restore and rebuild

Refinishing surfaces, returning contents, and rebuilding what could not be cleaned.

Insurance

Working with your insurer.

Fire is among the most consistently covered perils on a homeowner policy, and that usually extends to smoke and to the water damage caused by firefighting. Additional living expenses — somewhere to stay while the property is uninhabitable — are frequently covered too, and often underclaimed.

The contents inventory is where fire claims are won or lost. We document what was affected, what was cleaned and what was unsalvageable, item by item, because a carrier settling a fire claim will ask for exactly that.

A technician in a respirator cleaning soot from a fireplace surround

Questions, answered

Before you call.

The things people ask us most about this service.

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Can my belongings be saved?

More than people expect. Hard surfaces, most textiles and many electronics can be cleaned. Heavily charred and porous items usually cannot. We inventory contents and tell you honestly which pile each falls into.

Will the smell ever fully go?

Yes, if the source is removed rather than masked. Odor that returns weeks later almost always means soot is still sitting somewhere — inside a wall cavity, in ductwork, or in insulation that should have come out.

Can you board up the property tonight?

Yes. Emergency board-up and roof protection are part of the first visit. An open building invites weather, animals and theft, and insurers expect you to prevent further loss.

Do I need to be there while you work?

No. Most people are staying elsewhere by this stage. We can work from a key and keep you updated with photographs, and we will always check with you before anything is disposed of.

What about the water the fire service used?

It is treated as its own water loss and dried the same way. Left alone it causes secondary damage and mold on top of the fire damage, so drying usually runs alongside soot cleaning rather than after it.

Smoke goes everywhere.

The fire stops at one room. The smoke does not. We work the whole path it took, not just the part that burned.

Request an inspection

Tell us what happened.

Describe the property and the damage and we will come back to you with the next step. If it is urgent, call (828) 555-0142 — someone answers day or night.