We are seeing so many appliance, smoking and cooking fires in Westchester County this fall.
There were three in just the past 48 hours...and -- all but the one with no injuries, thank God.
One was actually due to an old, tube TV that overtaxed a wall socket and sparked a wall / socket fire -- could have been prevented.
Our crews have arrived after an emergency call to help a home or business owner -- from Harrison to Tarrytown and down to Scarsdale, Bronville and Eastchester -- with fire clean ups. The firemen had saved their home or business and now someone had to professionally clean it up.
The hard part is when we have had to carry out kitty cats, or watch firefighters carry beloved dogs, that did not survive the fire damage. I cannot even talk about the fires where someone lost a loved one.
But, it's not our job to save the people.
National ARC Partners for fire, flood & tornado victims!
We are now local and national partners with the American Red Cross for Blood Drives and fundraising efforts. At devastating fires where the people can not return until it's repaired, the Red Cross gets the people to safety. And then, we help by restoring and cleaning the home or business, so it's owners can return to their property free of broken glass, water damage, soot and debris.
In essence, your town's finest will try to save your structure, the Red Cross can save people by offering hotel space for a couple of days, supplies and clothing, while we restoration companies help restore what's left of a property. Most of us can work pretty directly with insurance companies and get them what is needed to move the claim forward. Often, we can save clothes, furniture and upholstery as well as electronics and water damaged wood floors.
It's heartbreaking to have a sooty kitchen that was caught early with little damage, much less the trauma of whole house fire. And, in many cases these types of fires can be prevented. That is, with: Working fire detectors on all floors, upgraded or well maintained electric lines and newer wall sockets in homes and businesses. Also, please do not smoke in or near a bed! Even a fire extinguisher that's easy to use and located near kitchens could save your home.
Teach younger children how to **stop, drop and roll and do a fire drill with the family one evening. No lights, just use your easily accessbile flashlights and go over the two ways for EVERYONE to escape. All in your home or business should know the top 3 steps to take FIRST in a fire situation -- and THEN call 911. Probably the first step is to GET OUT safely, with your business staff and clients, or your loved ones in a home. For the elderly, decide who's job is it to get to them and then get them out safely!
Fire Safety for Little Kids!
** S, D & R: One of the most basic fire safety instructions parents or teachers can pass on younger kids is the importance of not running if their clothes or hair catch on fire. Running will only fan the flames, causing them to spread. Instead, children and adults are encouraged to remember stop, drop and roll and try to extinguish any flames, depriving them of oxygen and increasing the chance of the child or a bystander surviving with few if any burns. Teach children that if they have flames on their clothing or body, just immediately stop and fall to the ground. Practice this with the child. Teach the child how she can roll back and forth, back and forth and try to extinguish the flames or deprive them of oxygen on the floor or ground outside. It can save a life, or prevent painful burns
For the elderly, my Dad is a fit 84 and he lives with us and his wife in a large colonial in Fleetwood 10552. In case of a fire, my husband or I can help and even lift him, but my stepmother may not be able to help him out quickly. So, overnight it's my job to get him off of the 2nd floor and out to safety...we just hope it's not through a window and to bushes below. That's Plan B, as Plan A is going down our main/grand-ish staircase that is over the kitchen area and to the front door, if possible. ALWAYS HAVE TWO WAYS OUT!
We have cleaned fire and soot damages at children's daycare centers. We have helped small business owners, who were underinsured for their stock and did not make it back to grand Scarsdale homes -- clients told us their place was cleaner when we left, than before the fire. The tough ones are always the water suppressed fires with hoses, and when firemen have to "vent" or break windows and punch holes in the roof.
THE ANATOMY OF A FIRE:
What happens is that the first responders and firefighters will try to save the structure. Sometimes, you'll end up with a cocktail of soot, broken glass that can cut through regular shoes, water in the walls, on your floors and filling the basement. Often, clothes, furniture and upholstery are wet AND sooty. So, what do you do?
Your insurance folks may take days to send an adjuster out, due to paperwork and backed up schedules. Don't wait and read your policy if it's not in a water soaked file folder. Most insurance policies state in small print that you are supposed to prevent further damage ($$$) by getting your property fixed and repaired. This includes restoration companies like ours getting your soaked clothing and textiles out and Ozone cleaned by our army of pros. We may even be able to save electronics, like computers, receivers and audio equipment.
Next, we deal with the water and mold prevention first by starting the drying process for your walls and ceilings, plus flooring and furniture. Also, having inches or feet of water in your wet basement can compromise the foundation over time, due to the weight of liquid pushing against the stone or cinder block. Meantime, you could have mold growing in just 24 - 48 hours.
Don't freak out, mold is microscopic at first and just gets it's little fungus growth going in tiny amounts. However, we want to catch that growth early and just be aware and let your restoration pros know if you smell "a mildew odor" when they are on site.
That's step one...getting the water and water damaged things out and saved, if possible. We don't rip out walls, if possible, like some non-certified contractors who want to do "demo" and then rebuild for you and bill your insurance. We wait on ripping drywall and try to do structural drying first, if possible. Meantime, you can see if you're home or business is covered, while we "dry out" walls and save wood flooring with our restoration equipment. THEN, we deal with the soot.
Fire damage soot and that black particulate are probably everywhere in a large fire, or certainly all over the room where the fire started. In smaller fires that are "suppressed" quickly, it can be more contained, but soot migrates just by someone walking past it on a surface. It is made up of burned material from walls, cloth, paper and icky stuff and it can be a hazard to yours, your family's or your staff's health. It may even be carcinogenic in high amounts, or at least cause respiratory problems. Hello...that's why our finest firefightes wear oxygen masks and respirators, to save their lungs and lives!
Soot cleanup can take days, if not weeks or a month, especially in multi-level or apartment / condo building fires. We have to work carefully and wipe down EVERY horizontal surface, chatchke and thing in the space, using containment.
There is no reason to track soot from an impacted room into a clean room with carpet. We use booties and plastic sheeting in many cases to stop the spread of odorous soot...that also stains everything it touches.
So, now you know the anatomy of a fire. Just be sure to hire pros who do this specialized cleanup and are water certified (for flood, water and mold damage). Having your "fav. handyman" bring in a fan to blow the soot around and maybe lend a dehumidifier from his basement -- that's consumer grade vs. our commercial grade that can get a large home desert dry -- may not be the best plan. Also, your local Servpro does only this for a living, are usually local, family owned and live/work in the community they sever. Some select restoration companies like us work directly with your insurance company, too, and focus on replace vs. restore -- so you get your sentimental items back.
PLEASE don't bring in a public aduster or "advocate" before we do a free walk through and give a free verbal estimate with and for you. Most insurance companies want to do the right thing and we want to make your fire damage in a home or business "Like it never even happened." P.A.'s will drag it out for months and even years, making your home or business much worse before their buddy in restoration ever touches it, or starts cleaning. We work and are insured by some great local State Farms for our home, cars and part of our small business.
So with all the stress and tears and frustration, let a seasoned restoration pro help you get back to normal, as quickly as possible. For our local and family owned Westchester business, no job is too big or too small. We work with realtors, too, to get that home back on the market!
Here are warning signs of four potential hazards that you may not know about
and our electrician friend sent me by email. If any of them sound
familiar, or you live in an old home like ours, consider hiring a licensed
electrician to conduct a wiring inspection (about $200 to $300...fires = $30k).
Hidden danger #1: Old wiring
The lifespan of an electrical system is 30 to 40 years. But more than 30% of the nation’s houses—some 30 million homes—are more than 50 years old. “Older homes with fuses were set up for about 30 amps of power; many homes now have 100, 150, even 200 amps of power,” says John Drengenberg, consumer safety director for a company that conducted a recent study on amps.
Warning signs of inadequate power include circuit breakers that trip or fuses that blow repeatedly, and an over-reliance on extension cords. “They’re meant to be temporary,” Drengenberg says. “If you have extension cords routed all over, it’s time to get an electrician out there. Your home would not comply with the National Electrical Code.”
Hidden danger #2: Aluminum wiring
Many houses built in the 1960s and early 1970s have aluminum wiring, which oxidizes and corrodes more easily than copper and has been linked by the Consumer Product Safety Commision to electrical fires. “It’s okay for a while, but it doesn’t have the life that copper does, particularly where wires terminate. The terminals and splices are known for overheating,” says Roger L. Boyell, a forensic engineer in Moorestown, N.J.
Short of a whole-house wiring upgrade, an electrician may be able to head off potential problems by installing copper connectors called pigtails at receptacles and breakers. “It’s time-consuming,” Boyell says, “but there’s no big equipment involved.”
Hidden danger #3: Arc faults
An arc fault—which occurs when electrical current veers off its intended path, often through a breach in wiring—is a leading cause of electrical fires, according to the National Fire Protection Association. It doesn’t take much to cause an arc fault. You could damage wiring inside the wall when hanging a cabinet, a piece of furniture could cut through a cord, or there may be a loose connection in an outlet.
The resulting arc, capable of producing heat in excess of 10,000 degrees F, can be nearly impossible to detect. But arc faults are preventable. A device called an arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) senses these dangerous abnormalities in wiring or appliances and shuts down the circuit before it overheats. The Electrical Safety Foundatin International estimates that the use of AFCIs could prevent 50% to 75% of fires caused by arc faults.
AFCIs are now required on circuits covering most general living areas in new houses. (Note: These are not the same as ground-fault circuit interrupters, or GFCIs, which are used in kitchens, baths, and other wet areas to prevent electrical shocks.) But they’re even more valuable in older houses, where connections may have degraded over the years. It’s an easy job for an electrician to upgrade standard circuit breakers, which don’t protect against arc faults, to AFCIs. At $30 to $50 per breaker, it could cost a few hundred dollars to retrofit every circuit. Still, weighed against the potential tragedy of a house fire, it’s money well spent.
Hidden danger #4: Counterfeit electrical products
If you’ve ever gone to a flea market and seen vendors hawking extension cords, power strips, night lights, batteries, even circuit breakers for ridiculously low prices, there’s a reason. They’re probably counterfeits, and they’re incredibly dangerous. “I’ve seen extension cords all over the country that have inferior copper in them-it’s speaker wire, and it literally melts in your hands,” says Brett Brenner, president of theElectrical Safety Foundatin International “They’re putting a lot of people at risk.”
Your best bet is to buy electrical products only from reputable retailers who will take things back if they don’t work. And look for the"Underwriters Laboraties seal. On low-cost items that are ripe for counterfeits, UL puts its logo in a holographic label that’s much more difficult to reproduce.
If the worst happens: Extinguishing an electrical fire
Electrical fires are tricky to put out. If you douse them with water, you run the risk of electrocution, and not all chemical fire suppressants will extinguish them completely. To be safe, make sure your household fire extinguisher is rated A-B-C, which indicates that it is effective against fires involving ordinary combustible materials, flammable liquids, and electrical equipment.
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