A Structured Start

Smoke Damage Following A Fire

Why categorise fires?

We categorise fire damage and smoke damage incidents to help with our decision making. Smoke damage to a property and its contents after a fire can cause secondary damage which in turn increases insurance claims. To the untrained eye the behaviour of smoke and the way that residues are deposited within a property can appear haphazard. However in reality smoke behaves according to understandable principles.

High energy smoke:

Smoke at a high temperature produces a temporary high energy environment and this results in smoke being forced into cooler, low energy environments, such as cupboards and appliance interiors. This heavy internal contamination is often found inside drawers, boxes, cupboards, appliances and building voids. This explains why the inside of cupboards and drawers are often more heavily contaminated than homeowners expect.

The consequences of oxygen starvation:

All combustion requires oxygen and if a fire has less oxygen than it needs for full combustion then the fire will burn more slowly. This produces a residue which has more odour and is more likely to stain. A typical example of this type of combustion would be a fire in a cupboard, or an electrical wiring fire. These residues are often identified by their high odour, can be very persistent and cause significant secondary damage.

PVC and acid fire residues:

When PVC burns it produces the highly acidic hydrochloric acid.

A prompt triage and quicker decisions.

Richfords can help you establish priorities from the beginning following fire damage and smoke damage by making a three way categorisation known as a triage.

The triage assessment identifies which items need our most urgent attention, to prevent secondary damage. It is similar to the triage carried out at the scene of accidents to ensure priority cases are dealt with first.