What Is the Anatomy of a Danbury Commercial Fire Damage Restoration?

6/17/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO Invests in Industry-Leading Training of Managers and Technicians in a Wide Spectrum of Restoration Specialities to Make Sure We Can Bring Danbury Businesses Through Any Fire Damage Scenario

When your Danbury business endures a fire, the mess and disruption are considerable. You need not only a company that can respond to the many tasks that must complete before the structure and contents of your commercial building are made whole. You also require a team that can create a concrete plan that manages the project from start to finish in an effective and efficient way. Fire damage cleanup is unlike any other commercial cleaning challenge, so find a trained and trained recovery firm to meet the challenge.

Why the Focus on Water Cleanup During Fire Damage Remediation?

Water is everywhere after a blaze in your Danbury business. Fire damage by nature includes significant water intrusion from firefighting efforts. The corrosive action of water is on par with the destruction of fire residues, and the presence of the fluids present a range of safety issues that push the water remediation to the top of the agenda.

• Slip, trip, and fall risks
• Electrocution risks
• Mold growth and damage risks
• Other pathogen proliferation risks
• Structural integrity (collapse) risks

How Is the Water Damage Handled?

SERVPRO crew members earn multiple certifications from the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), so water location, extraction, and structural drying is second nature for our team. As the crew members pursue the emergency services that remove the water and dry out the area, others on the team are inspecting and evaluating the damage more directly attributed to the fire.

What Do Professionals Look at When Matching Fire Residues with Cleaning Products and Methods?

Our crew chiefs examine the types of residues found throughout your business, expecting and usually finding that the soot varies depending on the fuel consumed as the blaze traveled throughout the spaces in your business. Some of the soot is loose and ashy; other types are thick and sticky. If food or grease heated or burned during the fire, that residue is thin and lacquer-like, very malodorous, and difficult to remove. Pre-testing of products and methods helps us to decide how to manipulate the elements of cleaning:

• Temperature--heat increases chemical actions
• Abrasives or sustained agitation
• Chemical agents -- water or oil-based (solvent) cleaners
• Time -- short or extended dwell times

How Does the Type of Affected Surface Impact the Cleaning Decisions?

Some building materials and fixtures are durable enough to stand up to high temperatures, vigorous agitation or abrasion, and chemical agents for the time needed to clear away residues. Other surfaces and contents are more easily damaged by the strategies fire damage restoration professionals might use to try to bring them back to preloss condition. It is a balancing act during every commercial fire damage recovery project, and our IICRC-trained technicians walk that line to try to achieve the best results for your business. We sometimes try a variety of options or repeat remediation techniques to solve the challenge.

Do Restoration Professionals Ever Decide Remediation Is Impossible?

If the residues or charring damage is so profound that removal will destroy the underlying structure or fixtures, our crew chief discusses the issue with our managers and you to determine the next steps. Our full-scale construction division can help with any tear-out, repair, or rebuilding needed to bring your business back to “Like it never even happened.” Our ability to do wrap-around restoration saves our commercial customers stress, time, and expense.

How About the Smell? Can You Eliminate the Stench of Fire Damage?

When we plot out the fire damage recovery timeline, we do not forget about the potential for lingering smells. Our zealous attempts to clear debris and residues go a long way toward ridding your building of the malodors. Even though concerted effort does not eradicate all smells, we turn to innovations in deodorization that proved their worth on other projects and in restoration industry research. Strategies include:

• Thermal fogging, which recreates the conditions during the fire by combusting deodorants in a heated chamber and then disseminating them throughout the affected space, pairs the deodorant agents with the odor-bearing soot particles, rendering them odorless.

• Hydroxyl generation, which uses free radicals to bond and chemically change the smelly soot particles, also rendering them inoffensive

• Ozone machines that use the process of oxidation to remove smells

• Enzymatic products that “eat” the odor-bearing residues

You can rely on SERVPRO of Danbury / Ridgefield for an A-Z restoration of your business after fire damage. Call us at (203) 791-0920, while the firefighters are wrapping up at your site to move into the next phase of your successful business.