Types of Wilmington Fire Damage After Disasters

4/3/2023 (Permalink)

You can count on our professionals in Wilmington with state-of-the-art equipment to quickly restore your fire damaged property.

SERVPRO Helps Clean Wilmington Fire Damage Loss

Wilmington is home to more than 70,000 residents, which does not include the thousands attending Drexel University, Wilmington University, or the Delaware College of Art & Design. Large disasters to homes and businesses like structure fires have various ways of impacting buildings and living spaces, making the restoration and recovery unique for each project. Our SERVPRO professionals must plan for several types of fire damage effects, including:

• Structural damage
• Airborne threats
• Water damage
• Soot circulation
• Smoke odors
• Debris and bulk materials

SERVPRO works fast to manage Wilmington fire damage through focused mitigative solutions and powerful restoration approaches. We appreciate the urgency of these situations, as structure fires can continually worsen for the property, even after extinguishment. With a crew of professionals ready to respond 24/7, we can start the necessary cleanup early.

What Does Fire Damage Restoration Do?

After structure fires, restoring a home or business requires several intricate, layered processes. The objective of professional restoration services is to return the property to preloss condition using soot cleanup, smoke remediation, odor removal, and other mitigative procedures. Trained FSRT-Certified technicians of our SERVPRO team complete this work from its earliest stages.

How Do Fire Damages Get Mitigated?

Mitigation focuses on several areas of the damaged home after fire effect exposure. The priority of these individual processes is to protect the structure and its contents from continued damage, however possible. Mitigating losses happen in several ways, including:

• Contents – Contents should be relocated to undamaged building areas and protected from any migrating effects. On-site cleaning is possible, as is off-site transportation to our SERVPRO facility for focused restoration work.
• Structure – Protecting installed building materials is also a focus of fire damage mitigation steps. In some cases, this could mean demolishing compromised elements or focusing on pressing conditions that can continue to cripple the integrity of these materials, like standing water.
• Containment – Preventing the spread of fire damage effects is essential in reducing the customer's restoration costs and making the process more efficient. Physical barriers erected with plastic sheeting and frames can contain the work area.

Soot Cleaning Strategies

Soot is formidable to remove, as the composition of this threat changes by the affected property. We must determine the answers to several questions to provide the appropriate soot and smoke solid removal techniques:

• Type of Soil – The type of soil changes based on the materials combusted and atmospheric conditions. Wet smoke, for example, requires processes like dissolving to overcome, while dry smoke can often be mostly wiped and cleaned with chemical sponges.
• Hosting Material – The underlying material also determines the cleaning method used. Some abrasive techniques can ruin installed building materials, so we test restoration solutions to ensure we have selected them correctly.
• Is it Worth Saving? – Salvageability is a crucial factor. However, the ability to preserve material does not always make it cost-effective or wise to do so. We choose restoration over replacement much of the time, but never at a higher cost to customers or their time.

Post-Fire Damage Reconstruction

Reconstruction and repair are typical staples of the final stages of remediation and restoration after a fire. Considering how destructive high-heat blazes can be by combusting fuels, accelerants, and building materials, controlled demolition clears out remnants and prepares the property for reconstruction. We have experienced crew members with a contractor license to complete needed build-back after fires.

Fire damage in Wilmington homes and businesses incorporates a group of talented restoration professionals, our cutting-edge equipment, and our fast response. We can help homes recover from various types of fire damage effects. Give our SERVPRO of Hockessin / Elsmere team a call now at (302) 992-0104.