What Should a Homeowner Do if a Fire Burns Their Ceiling and Leaves Behind Debris and Soot?

10/15/2020 (Permalink)

Fire Damage to Your Chicago Property? SERVPRO Can Remove the Debris and Place an Ozone Machine to Clean the of Odors and Particles

If You Ever Need Fire Cleanup Services After the Ceiling Inside Your Chicago Home Burns Call SERVPRO

If your furnace malfunctions or you have an electrical short in your attic inside your Chicago residence, heat can rise and cause your ceiling to burn. Once your ceiling starts to burn, debris can begin to fall and settle onto your floors. Soot residues can also accumulate on your walls and your contents from the smoke created and the fallen materials.

How can you safely remove burnt debris from floors?

As a part of fire cleanup inside your Chicago residence, our SERVPRO team can start by removing large burnt materials by putting them in sealed trash bags. We can also create a containment chamber around the affected areas of your home so that soot residues and dust cannot travel throughout your home during the debris removal process. We can then clean up the remaining soot and other small burnt particles using a vacuum equipped with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter.

How can you remove soot residues from my walls and contents?

• Vacuuming: At first, our SERVPRO technicians can use a HEPA vacuum to remove excess soot from your drywall, furniture, and other items.
• Dry Sponge Cleaning: Next, we can use dry sponges or other cleaning tools like rags or feather dusters to remove soot from porous materials such as drywall or unfinished wood.
• Wet Cleaning: For non-porous, hard surfaces like finished wooden surfaced items, we can utilize a cloth with a general surface cleaner.

What can you do if my house smells burnt?

• Fogging: We can use an ultra-low volume or a thermal fogger that breaks down deodorant chemicals to a size similar to the smoke particle size.
• Ozone Machine: We can also use an ozone generator to dispense unstable O3 particles that can oxide malodor molecules, under extreme cases.

If your ceiling burns after you have an electrical failure, it is wise to call SERVPRO of West Loop / Bucktown / Greektown at (773) 434-9100 as soon as possible.