Image credit: Andrew Gaines
If your house is damaged in a house fire, you do not want to think about cleaning. We will help you remove traces of soot, remove the smell of burning and prepare the room for repair.
Tip:
Do not postpone cleaning after the house fire for later – in due course, the room will become saturated with the pungent smell of burning, which will become almost impossible to get rid of.
A house fire is a great misfortune for any person. Fire can flare up in a wooden barn and a high-rise building, and this is a disaster from which no one is immune.
If your house is damaged in a house fire and you lose valuable and dear to the heart of things, the last thing you want to think about is cleaning the room. This is not only difficult, but also dangerous work, since many materials emit toxic substances in the combustion process. Moreover, cleaning after a house fire should be carried out using special equipment and cleaners. That’s why many fire victims prefer to entrust this work to specialists and apply for help in companies engaged in cleaning apartments after a house fire.
If you decide to cope with the task yourself, it’s important to act systematically. It is not necessary to postpone cleaning for later, since it will pass time and get rid of the pungent smell of burning will be almost impossible.
The cleaning process depends on the type of room and the degree of damage, but several general rules for cleaning the room after a house fire should be observed:
- First of all, take out the remaining furniture and personal items, and also take out the coals and ash
- Cracked or smudged glass should be carefully removed from window and doorways, wearing protective gloves and taking all security measures
- Clean walls, floor and ceiling from soot with a vacuum cleaner or soft blasting technology
- If necessary, wash the walls using a stiff brush, a mop and special cleaning agents to remove soot
- Surviving soft furniture, carpets and curtains should be given to dry cleaners
- Free the refrigerator and freezer and leave them open.
- Wipe the leaves of the surviving indoor plants on both sides
- Change the filter in the ventilation ducts and pull the double layer of gauze onto the ventilation grilles
- Wipe the chrome surfaces and cover them with a thin protective layer of petroleum jelly or oil
- It is not necessary to include, and even more so to clean the electrical and lighting devices that were in the fire zone without consulting specialists
How to get rid of the smell of burning in the room?
Removing a heavy smell of burning is a long and time-consuming process. The fact is that during the combustion different synthetic resins are released, which penetrate into the pores of furniture and finishing materials. Because of this, the smell of burning can survive up to six months and simple airing here is indispensable.
To eliminate the smell of burning, you need to use special deodorant drugs, which need to treat walls, floor and ceiling, as well as surviving furniture, carpets, textiles, household appliances, clothes, shoes, bed-clothes and towels-in short, all the surviving property. Follow the instructions on the labels carefully and observe all necessary safety precautions.
If after cleaning the room, the smell of burning disappears only for a while, you should re-clean.