Helping a Mother and Daughter Rebuild After a Fire in Their Shreveport Home

We recently responded to a fire loss for a house in Shreveport that was owned by a single mother with a special needs child. The fire damage started in the kitchen because of a grease fire. The kitchen cabinets and appliances were a complete loss. Most of the furniture and items in the living room adjoining the kitchen were lost because of the heat and amount of soot damage. We were able to complete a pack out, where we carefully pack up everything that is salvageable and remove it from the premises, and clean the contents for the rest of the home, although the restoration is still an ongoing project. 

Rising From The Ashes

A fire is always tricky because of the amount of work involved. We also often have a limited supply of utilities. In most fire losses, the utilities are shut off until professionals determine if they are affected themselves. However, our priority is to stabilize the property to prevent any further damage. The process starts with removing all of the contents that could potentially be saved out of the home. We then address any additional damage that the fire department may have done when using water to put the fire out.  

We don’t want mold growth to occur so we set up a generator and dehumidifiers. Our biggest concern after any fire loss is the ever-pressing need to ensure that we are getting rid of the odor. We’ll do several things including using active charcoal filters in our HEPA air scrubbers, odor spray, odor blocks to mask the odor, and even removing certain materials.

After we address the moisture, we begin our mitigation of the structure by removing all of the non-restorable materials. Then, we start an intensive cleaning process. Using powerful EPA-approved products, we’ll wipe down the ceilings, walls, baseboards, vanities, showers, tubs, and floors throughout the affected area – often the entire home. If you think about all the things that soot can affect, it can become overwhelming. But we always take it one step at a time. Once everything is cleaned, if there is some charring or damage to the 2×4 studs or rafters, we’ll use an incapsulate for odor control as our last resort.

The goal for fire damage mitigation is to get the repairs done as fast as you can to reduce the amount of secondary damage that can occur.  In this case, we completed this side of the work around the middle of October, however, a few weeks later, we are still waiting on the insurance to approve our reconstruction estimate before moving forward with repairs.

After all of this is said and done, if the homeowner hires us to complete the repairs, we then turn the home over to our company’s construction division. Our project manager communicates with the insurance adjuster and the homeowner as we return their home to its pre-loss condition.

Contact PuroClean of Shreveport for Fire Loss Restoration Services

Fire damage to your property needs to be dealt with immediately. PuroClean of Shreveport will determine the full extent of the damage to your residential or commercial property. We will then provide all the necessary fire damage restoration services, from structural support to board-ups, and more. Call us at (318) 532-6700.