Dos and don’ts after a fire in your property

 It’s a property or business owner’s worst nightmare – a fire.

There’s no getting away from the fact that a fire will cause your property a great deal of damage, even if it’s put out relatively quickly or is a small fire.  It’s not just the fire – smoke damage can be devastating and cause a huge amount of damage.

If your premises are hit by a fire, you need to act quickly to prevent the damage worsening, and also know what NOT to do yourself if you don’t want to make things worse. Our advice is that you need to call the professionals – insurers and disaster recovery experts – to get the mess assessed and cleaned up as soon as you possibly can.

If you’re faced with the after effects of a fire, you’ll be pleased to hear (once you’ve recovered from the shock) that there are people who can get straight in there and help you sort everything out. There’s no need to panic.

What should you do after a fire?

You can do some things yourself to make the clean-up easier before the professionals get involved.

• If you can, cover up the carpets – if you can find old sheets or towels these are ideal. It just stops the damage from getting worse.
• Open all of the windows to clear the smoke contamination and air the room(s) out. This helps prevent any long term odours from building up.
• Call your insurance company and arrange for a specialist cleaner to visit.  

  

What NOT to do after a fire?

There are many things you should avoid doing after a fire; even if they seem common sense, they might actually make the damage worse. So, even if you’re tempted, don’t do any of the following.

• Don’t attempt to clean any of the furniture or upholstery in the building yourself. The temptation to do so might be hard to resist, but it’s likely that you’ll make things worse, spreading smoke residue and soot around. Wait for the professional disaster recovery experts to come along – they will have specialist equipment to clean everything properly.
• Keep your hands off! If you touch affected areas you’ll only spread the damage around and make the professional clean-up process take even longer.
• Don’t attempt to use your electrical appliances before you’ve had them properly tested – they could be damaged too and you might end up causing another fire, which is the very last thing you need!

For advice about our range of professional cleaning services, or to get a quotation, please feel free to contact us.