Dealing With the Damage After a House Fire
A house fire can be an incredibly traumatic event. Even if no one is hurt, you’ll still be looking at something that can irrevocably change your life and your home. Some of the hardest work you’ll ever do as a homeowner will happen after the fire is over. Below are just a few of the steps you’ll need to take to deal with the damage after the fire.
Make Sure It Is Safe
The most important step you’ll need to take is to figure out whether or not your house is safe to enter. You’ll work with local fire services to figure out when it’s safe to go back inside and with local building inspectors to determine if it’s safe for you to reside in the house. You’ll need an all-clear from them before you can think about doing anything else on this list.
Look Into Removal Services
House fires can be incredibly damaging and they can reduce some of your most beloved possessions to ash. Once you’re cleared to go inside and start cleaning up, you’ll want to think about hiring some kind of removal service to clear your house of anything that cannot be salvaged. There are certainly services that specialize in just this type of activity, but you can also do the work yourself by renting a dumpster in order to clear out your own home. Just be careful as you work to avoid injuries from structural damage, broken glass, torn metal, and other hazards.
Don’t Forget About Invisible Damage
While a house fire immediately invokes images of charred rooms and belongings reduced to ash, there are other sorts of damage you’ll have to deal with too. Some of the damage to your home won’t be as easy to see as the damage done by the flames. Parts of your home that aren’t even touched by the flames may take on smoke damage, for example.
You may also have to deal with water damage from the water firefighters used to extinguish the fire. Some of this water damage might be structural, while some of the damage might lead to the future possibility of mold growth. The more damage you find and fix before you move back in, though, the safer your home will be.
Smoke and water damage can affect both the structure of your home and your belongings, whether or not they were damaged by the flames. You’ll want to hire professionals to look into water damage and any damage done by smoke.
Work With Insurance
Finally, you’ll want to make sure that you work closely with your insurance. Your insurance may cover some or all of the cost of rebuilding or remodeling your home and replacing anything that was lost in the fire. You’ll want to keep records of any work you have done, and you should take a careful inventory of anything that you happen to lose in the fire. Working with insurance can be hard, but it’s your best chance to get back on your feet financially.
Dealing with damage after a fire is never easy. You’ll need to make sure your home is safe and then start to address other problems one by one. In time, though, you can make you house feel like home again.
