Fire and Smoke Damage Restoration

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After a structure fire, restoration contractors are often on scene within hours to perform emergency services.  This usually begins with boarding up windows and doors and covering holes in the roof cut by the fire department.

The IICRC will hold its third-annual 2018 Technical Conference Sept. 27-28, at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The theme for this year’s conference will be ‘Trauma and Crime Scene Cleanup.’

Odor removal is one of the more subjective parts of restoration and remediation work. What one person smells, another may not. What is offensive-smelling to one person, may smell sweet as roses to someone else (anyone want to talk about the smell of diesel fumes?!). 

It was another warm and windy night in Southern California. As with any strong East wind event, we anticipated hearing about a small brush fire or two in the morning, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to hear about the one that kicked up about 20 miles away.

Like the boy that cried wolf, some fire professionals have been hearing about the first-ever internationally accredited fire restoration standard for a long time – or what feels like a long time – and a yeah, call me when it’s done reaction is understandable. Yet it seems a larger group, a majority of fire damage contractors, aren’t even aware development is underway.

Question: If you hired a restoration firm and paid them to restore your structure and contents, would you expect them to clean strictly for appearance, or should the safety and health of workers and your family be the primary concern?

Odor removal in general can be one of the trickier elements to any restoration project. When it comes to large loss, removing the smoke odor (for example) from a warehouse the size of Ikea is no easy feat. It takes a knowledgeable restoration company and the right equipment to get the job done the right way, so there is no residual odor – and the odor doesn’t return later.