Hundreds of properties are affected by fire damage each year. Today many goods and materials can be effectively restored, usually on location which in the past would have been thrown away and replaced.
Fire Damage: Is defined as any smoke or smoke residue that causes the usefulness, future use, or value of any property to become impaired by smoke.
Fire Damage Restoration: is defined as the act or process of restoring and is not complete until the damage is brought back to a pre-loss state.
Components of Smoke: These are not visible components of smoke but are vapours within the smoke. Gasses generated in a fire are extremely dangerous. A burning structure and its contents produce thousands of different gases which fall into two different categories.
- Oxides of Nitrogen – These are gases produced by organic compounds such as oil, food, paper, wood which are the most common in fires.
- Sulphur Dioxide – These are gases produced by inorganic compounds such as plastics and rubber.
Fire Damage Timeline: These are examples of what can happen in the aftermath of a fire.
- Within the first few hours water contamination spreads to unaffected areas. Stains that are released from furniture may stain carpet permanently, moisture sensitive surfaces may turn white, paper goods are ruined due to moisture absorption and swelling. Acid soot residues, within minutes may cause a yellow discolouration of plastic surfaces. Due to heat some surfaces may expand and entrap soot residues.
- Within the first day furniture in direct contact of water may swell and legs may begin to split. Plasterboard will begin to split and starts to disintegrate and bacterial odour becomes apparent.
- Within the first Five Days in the presence of moisture, mould and mildew appears along with a musty odour, moisture sensitive internal components begin to swell, metal surfaces begin to rust, door and window casings begin to distort. If acid soot is present then painted walls will yellow permanently, metal corrodes.
- Within the first two weeks mould associated with prolonged dampness sinks roots into organic materials such as plasterboards and other acid residues continue to destroy carpets and remaining fittings.
We are an internationally recognised firm and are accredited by the IICRC in fire and smoke restoration. We are trained to deal with the aftermath of any fire however big or small whether on a commercial or domestic site. Our priority is to restore items that can be restored as quickly as possible. Our teams can fully strip out properties correctly taking away and disposing of hazardous waste and treat smoke damage restoring your property to its pre-loss state. See pictures of fire restoration projects that we have completed.
Our firm has committed to continually train our team through the IICRC programme through ongoing compulsory training programmes.
What is the IICRC?
The IICRC is the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification, a non-profit organisation for the Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Industries.