What’s In This Articles

• Five Things to Replace After a Fire
• A Few More Items You Probably Don’t Want to Keep After a Fire
• If You Need Public Adjusters for a Fire Insurance Claim, Call AllCity Adjusting

Five Things to Replace After a Fire

Having a house fire can devastate a family. Hopefully, no one was hurt. Nevertheless, once the fire is out, the fire department will permit you to enter your home. You can go through your house, seeing what you can and cannot save. Of course, that may not be a pleasant experience. You hope you will keep all your possessions. However, there are five things to replace after a fire; they’re not worth keeping.

High heat from the fire can weaken glass. Therefore, even if the glass appears intact and clean, it could be on the verge of shattering. This goes for glasses and pitchers from which you drink.

Additionally, it includes glass in windows and doors.

For all our technological advances, fire damage to a carpet is close to impossible to clean. Even a good fire restoration company probably can’t restore a burned carpet. Of course, it’s even harder to cover up.

While you could cut out the burned carpet and put in new sections, the carpet available when you do the repairs likely will not be from the same lot. As a result, you’ll have a mismatch and seam(s) that can fail.

You’re better off replacing all the carpeting in the room.

If flames or sparks have made it into your home’s insulation, replace it now. Burned insulation is ineffective; even if you were to stuff the space with more insulation, the air pockets between the old and new insulation would render the section ineffective.

It’s better to remove the remaining section and install new insulation.

Damaged electrical wiring could have hidden faults and be a fire hazard waiting to ignite or shock. After a fire, have an electrician inspect the wiring. They should replace any damaged wiring.

This includes wire insulation which looks even slightly damaged. In this way, you ensure you won’t have a secondary electrical fire in the future.

If any of the building’s framing has been damaged, replace it. Charred wood that is now weaker than it should be. That does not bode well if there is stress placed on the building’s frame.

Don’t accept any shoddy repair plan. You want to protect your home. Instead, insist to your insurance agent they replace the charred wood (and have your homeowner insurance company pay for it).

A Few More Items You Probably Don’t Want to Keep After a Fire

In addition to the above, any food items that were near the fire should be thrown away. Fires produce a high level of heat that can render food unsavory or potentially make it toxic to eat from chemicals leaching into it from packaging.

This includes food sealed in cans and jars. The heat from the fire could spoil the food in those containers.

Therefore, you don’t want to eat food that is exposed to the extreme heat and smoke produced by a fire.

Even eating food from the refrigerator may not be safe.

If the house lost power, a refrigerator with the door closed can keep food from spoiling for four hours.

However, open the door. Is there any sign of soot or smoke damage? How is the air quality inside the refrigerator?

You should not use cosmetics or skincare products that have been exposed to the high heat of a fire. The fire’s extreme heat can react negatively with the chemicals in skincare products and cosmetics. As a result, the cosmetics can become ineffective and potentially dangerous.

Therefore, restoration services or emergency services won’t help for your cosmetics. It is always best to throw away cosmetics exposed to the heat of the house fire.

Lastly, clothes, bedding, and other textiles can often be salvaged after a fire with the proper cleaning and disinfecting. A fire restoration company can even get smoke and soot residues out of clothes.

However, if anything is burnt, throw it away. Use even stricter judgment when considering your child’s or baby’s clothing.

If You Need Public Adjusters for a Fire Insurance Claim, Call AllCity Adjusting

We are a family-owned claims company with five decades of combined adjusting experience. As a result, if there’s one thing we understand, it’s the insurance claims business.

You have already gone through a tumultuous event. For this reason, get an agency that gets you more.

At AllCity Adjusting we work to ensure you get 100% of your fire damage insurance claim value. Equally important, with over 50 years of combined experience as insurance adjusters, we know insurance companies and understand where they cut corners.

Therefore, if you have received a low-ball offer from the insurance company, or they are taking too long to process your smoke damage insurance claim or you just want to talk to someone on your side, call us at 844.692.3587. Or you can email us at info@allcityadhjusting.com.