Fire-Related Water Damage

That sounds kind of strange, does it not? Water is usually one of the last things that you tend to think about when your house is on fire, except for wanting lots of it to put the fire out with. When the fire trucks come and start the business of putting the fire out with gallons and gallons of water, we are typically overjoyed, except for those of us who know that the water they pour onto and into our home can be almost as damaging as the fire itself. Ceilings and walls become soaked in water, not to mention the rest of the home’s appliances, furniture, and fixtures. The insulation in the attic is not safe, either, because once it gets wet, it becomes completely useless in protecting your home from the heat and cold during the summer and winter seasons. It weighs down on your ceiling’s drywall and can eventually cause it to collapse if not replaced soon.

There are plenty of things that you can do when you have a fire in your home and you return to it to find not a dried out shell of a building, but a soaking wet interior.

Wait to turn on any household appliances or any lights while you are in standing water. This includes carpets that are soaked with water and make splashing sounds when you walk across them. It is also very important that you do not do this while standing on concrete floors. The possibility of electrocution is high.

If you start to enter a room, look up at the ceiling. If the ceiling is sagging down, then it is probably due to water that has been retained in the attic or because of insulation that has gotten soaked and is weighing down on the drywall. Do not enter this room. Instead, check out the damage to the attic, if possible.

Whatever clothing that you have in your home should be removed and hung outside to dry, if possible. Leaving wet clothing in your home to dry will ruin them because of the fact that mold will set in within about 24 to 48 hours after water exposure.

Whatever you do, do not attempt to vacuum floors that are wet. Using a wet vacuum cleaner to do this is the only option, but only do this after the electrical circuits in the house have been checked and found to be undamaged.

Remove any books and magazines that have colored covers from the floors. The dyes from these will run and stain your floors and carpet. These should be removed as soon as possible.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
North Carolina Water Damage Restoration and other states such as
New Jersey Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.

Cleaning Up Smoke Damage

Fire is a veritable nightmare for any property owner, whether it is an apartment complex, a house, a business, or even just a piece of land. It can be devastating, but the most danger and expense usually comes from fires that affect the inside of a home or other building. These can wreak havoc on the lives of those who live in the home or even just the person renting it out, depending on whose fault the fire was, if it was anyone’s fault. There are a few things that you should do and not do if your house is the victim of a fire in order to clean up, especially if you cannot hire a restoration company to help you do so.

First, let us talk about the things that you really should do.

If you have pets in the home, you should remove them and get them to a safe environment as quickly as possible after the fire is out. You should not allow your pets, especially birds, to re-enter the home until the damage is taken care of. Birds are especially sensitive to smoke and other gases, so getting them removed from the home is very important to prevent the loss of life.

Open the windows and allow the air from outside to circulate. This will help get rid of the smell of smoke in the home. If your vacuum cleaner made it out of the fire or preferably if you have access to someone else’s, then using this to collect soot and other particles from your carpets, curtains, and upholstery should be the next thing that you do.

If you have plants, wash them completely in water and make sure that soot and other particles are not allowed to stay on them for long.

The things that you should not do should start with not using any electrical appliances (including your vacuum cleaner) until they have been checked and cleaned.

Do not attempt to clean porous surfaces like your ceilings and walls.

Sitting down on any furniture in your home that is upholstered (i.e. porous) is not recommended until they have been vacuumed and covered with plastic.

Any food items that were in the home at the time of the fire should be thrown away. This includes canned goods.

These tips are designed with your safety and your home’s restoration in mind. There may be other things that a restoration company could do to help you and in some cases, hiring a professional is the best thing that you can do. Weigh the pros and cons of hiring a professional and then decide what is best for you. Dealing with a home that has been water damaged due to the water from fire trucks is also another matter to contend with. Always consider hiring a professional to deal with extensive damage.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and and other states such as
Connecticut Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.

Water Safety and Sanitation During Hurricanes

When you are preparing for a hurricane to hit your home and you plan on staying there instead of evacuating, the most important thing that you need to worry about is your water supply. Even though water damage to your home after the storm is over can be a real headache to have to deal with, the water damage that contaminated sea and sewer water can do to you and your family is even more dangerous. You might be able to repair the water damage to your home with money, but drinking or coming into contact with contaminated water can lead to serious illness and even death in some cases.

You should have a large amount of bottled water on hand at any given time if you live in a flood or hurricane prone area. The number of gallons that you have on hand should be enough for every person with you to have one gallon of water a day for at least a week or two. Keeping water purification tablets on hand is one very important thing that will help you if you happen to run out of bottled water for any reason. Chlorinated bleach can also be used to purify any of the contaminated water that you come across. If the water is cloudy, you can filter it through cloth until it is mostly clear. After that, you can use about 1/8 of a teaspoon of chlorinated bleach to treat a gallon of water. Leave this for at least 30 minutes before you attempt to drink it. This will make sure that all the bacteria and viruses in the water have been killed.

Unfortunately, you cannot trust that the water that comes out of your faucet during a hurricane is safe to drink. Flood waters from the sea and from the sewers can contaminate your local water treatment plants and cause the water in them to become undrinkable. You should never drink tap water until your local government assures you that it is safe to drink.

If you have children in your home, do not let them play outside in flood waters. Even if it gets up into the 80’s and 90’s in temperature, the worst thing that you could do is let the kids play in the water, especially young ones that do not know any better than to drink it. Toys that come into contact with the water need to be disinfected with bleach or other chemicals, but this is only for non-porous toys. Stuffed animals and other items like this must be thrown away immediately.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut water damage restoration contractors and other states such as
North Carolina mold remediation contractor companies across the united states.