2018 was a historic year for ASR Property Restoration, not only in growth, but it was also the year that we became experts in cleaning schools after wildfires, and became heroes to our local school districts, the parents, and our community. ASR Property Restoration, with a full-time staff of 70 people who were already busy, restored, cleaned, deodorized, and set equipment in over 50 schools from two separate wildfires in our county. For these schools, we ended up employing over 600 people, had over 500 air scrubbers, 250 Hydroxyls and both events were performed ahead of schedule with lost school time being only 7 to 10 days. These two fires were responsible for displacing over 30,000 students in the schools we worked on in five school districts. The work was performed with the same scope and strategy, saving the insurance carrier over 3 million dollars. The total combined revenue for all school work was $13.5 million dollars completed in 6 weeks.
The Thomas fire started December 4, 2017, and eventually burned 281,893 acres. The blaze consumed more than 1,000 structures throughout Southern California before it became 100% contained January 12. It also led to devastating mudslides in Montecito that killed 17 people and destroyed dozens of homes. The fire, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and dry conditions, devastated portions of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. It also concluded the costliest year of wildfires in US history, in which fires did more than $10 billion in damage. About $177 million was spent battling the Thomas Fire alone, according to Cal Fire. All within 15 to 30 minutes north of our office.