How Smoke Affects Your Building After a Fire

5/4/2022 (Permalink)

After A Fire, How Smoke Affects Your Building.

After a fire in your Longmont, CO, building, you will probably be most concerned with the damage caused by the flames. This is often the easiest to see and can have the most obvious effect on your building. However, smoke damage can also be extensive. There are multiple ways in which smoke can affect your work environment after a fire.

1. Surface Discoloration

During a fire, smoke travels further than the flames and can affect a much larger area. Soot can settle on surfaces, causing discoloration on walls, floors, furniture and other items. Smoke cleaning on hard surfaces can be done relatively easily, but porous items may need extra care.

2. Equipment Damage

Even if the fire itself does not touch your equipment, that does not mean that it has escaped damage entirely. Smoke and soot can become trapped inside electronic devices, causing corrosion if it is not removed quickly.

If you think that a computer or other device has been affected by smoke, do not turn it on until it has been inspected by a professional and smoke cleaning has been done. Doing so could cause the smoke to move throughout the interior of the device and cause even more damage.

3. Smoke Odor

Not all damage from smoke is visible. In some cases, you may experience a persistent odor after a fire. This can be because of soot and smoke particles trapped inside carpeting, furniture or other porous materials or particles in the air. Dry cleaning affected belongings can reduce this odor. If it does not go away after that, you may need to use an air scrubber or purifier to remove lingering smoke from the building’s environment.

Flames from a fire can have an obvious effect on your building, but it is not the only damage that will occur. It is important to have smoke cleaning done to return the environment to its pre-fire state. Professional services can perform cleanup and repairs to return your building to a safe and comfortable space.