What Can Professionals Salvage After a Commercial Fire?

1/31/2022 (Permalink)

Smoke and soot damage can be difficult to clean up without expert help.

What Can Professionals Recover After a Business Fire?

Fires are disastrous for any business, but it does not mean your business in Cumberland Estates, TN, has to be inconvenienced for long. Many items can be salvaged following a fire. Occasionally, all you need to do is take the item in for dry-cleaning. As professionals look at the walls and floor of your building, make sure to ask about content cleaning.

Textiles

Certain items are prone to absorbing soot. These include:

• Clothing
  
• Upholstered furniture
  
• Carpets
  
• Drapes
  
  

You want to leave these in the hands of professionals. The reason is that if you attempt to wash them on your own, then you could end up doing more harm than good. Washing incorrectly only causes the soot and smoke to go deeper into the fabric. This will make the ultimate remediation more difficult, so always give these products to dry-cleaning professionals.

Electronics

In many cases, professionals will be able to salvage electronics. However, you need to take care to unplug the electronics as soon as the fire is put out. You should also avoid turning the items on until a professional looks at them because there could be interior water damage.

Documents

It is possible to salvage some books and documents, depending on the extent of the damage. However, it is extremely difficult and not always possible. Therefore, commercial property owners need to remain proactive and retain backups of all critical documents. This includes bank statements, insurance policies and other important records. Having backups will be a lifesaver if the original copies cannot be saved. It is recommended to keep these backups in another location outside of the office building.

Remediation experts who offer content storage and dry-cleaning will do everything in their power to salvage as much as possible. Ultimately, it is a good idea to have a solid insurance policy and to begin the claims process as soon as you can.