How Do I Handle Important Documents Damaged from a Fire in Dallas?

4/19/2020 (Permalink)

“Like it never even happened.”

SERVPRO has advanced cleaning methods for handling all types of contents in Dallas homes with fire loss

A fire loss can present multiple issues in a house all at once. From the charring to smoke damage and finally water damage from the distinguishing efforts of the fire department. All of these things leave behind cleaning challenges. Individual items have no real value to insurance companies but are priceless to homeowners such as:

    •    Cherished letters from relatives
    •    Bills
    •    Canceled checks
    •    Everyday magazines

Why Can't I Clean Off Documents with Fire Damage Myself?
Not all smoke and fire damage in Dallas homes is the same. In fact, there can be different kinds of residues in a single area, depending on the materials burned and the heat of the fire. The biggest issue with paper products is frequently not from soot or charring, but water from the extinguishing efforts. Another commonly seen side effect from this on paper products is the evidence of mold growth on papers and books, as mold seeks out moisture and something organic to consumer, wood pulp products are ideal.

While you might successfully brush away dry smoke, which is a product of high heat fires where chiefly organic materials burned, the cleanup will come to a screeching halt when you encounter wet smoke. This greasy, smeary substance results from primarily plastics and rubber products burning, and it is challenging to remove. When it comes to the restoration of paper products, they need specialized applications, particularly if they also got drenched.

Collection of Papers With Fire Damage
It may not be safe to enter the fire loss area in the Dallas home to collect vital documents. There are numerous hazards after a fire in a house, including air quality, soot, slip, and fall accidents due to water and structural damage. If any of these potential dangers are present in the home, wait until the SERVPRO technicians arrive and inform the crew chief of the items you need to be retrieved.

Winning Tactics for Restoring Paper Items from Fire Loss
When SERVPRO technicians handle fire damaged paper-based items, one of the first actions they do is to freeze the documents at one of our state-certified document drying facilities. Any paper products get flash-frozen immediately, documented, and shipped for in-plant handling. Upon arrival, the pieces enter a low-pressure vaporization chamber. The entire process gets organized as follows:

    •    Inventory of all documents using a barcode system
    •    Vacuum and pressure drying of frozen materials, also known as sublimation
    •    Decontamination phase using gamma irradiation which kills bacteria and microbes without any harm to the paper fibers
    •    Manual cleaning
    •    Deodorizing as needed to remove smoke odors

What Makes Sublimation a Good Restoration Option for Books and Papers?
SERVPRO uses the same methods employed by the Library of Congress for handling historical documents and rare books for Dallas residents. The item gets first frozen through using vacuum freezing and sublimation as the best method for the removal of moisture from paper products. The freezing part of the process is necessary because it immediately stops any further degrading of the inks, prevents mold and fungus growth, or any further damage to the paper. Once frozen, the items can remain in this state indefinitely, which is beneficial when part of the restoration requires transport.

The next step is to ready the items for drying and cleaning. When ice melts, the outcome is water. Sublimation skips that step and takes the water within frozen items and turns it into a vapor state, skipping the water state as part of the transition.

To stop the wrinkling and warping of papers and books, they are sometimes pressed during drying to ensure they retain their shape. Afterward, the techs go through each article or book page one at a time to remove any remaining soot, stains, spotting, or other evidence of loss as much as possible.

How to Avoid Damage to Important Papers in the Future
There are several actions you can take to avoid this situation in the future. First, consider getting a storage box rated as fireproof and use it to store valuable documents.

Because a home box for storage can get lost or stolen, it is also a good idea to scan the files and back them up on a disk, flash drive, or use cloud storage. Consider renting a safety deposit box to stash copies, or if you have an attorney or accountant, see if you can arrange to have copies placed with them.

Contact SERVPRO of Northwest Dallas at (214) 361-7887 when you need assistance with the cleanup and restoration of your home from fire damage of any size.

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