Why Advanced Training in Appropriate Kitchen Fire Damage Cleaning Is Crucial

3/28/2020 (Permalink)

Cleaning up after a fire in your Montgomery home requires more than an upbeat attitude and some elbow grease. Even if the flames subsided quickly, residues from the kitchen fire likely spread widely throughout your home. The soiling attaches to any surface, horizontal, vertical, or slanted, the hot air currents from the fire depositing the soot on cooler walls, ceilings, and furnishings often far from the ignition site. Residues are almost transparent but very bad smelling and tightly adhered to the surfaces. 

Not Typical Household Dirt and Grime

To understand issues presented by fire damage in Montgomery home, imagine the interior of your oven after many roastings and broilers without cleaning. Think about the coatings in a microwave or outdoor grill that were not addressed immediately after cooking. The residues that drift through your home after a kitchen fire are similar, not the dry and ashy soot of a wood fire, but the remains of grease, oils, and proteins, now dehydrated and in every corner of your abode.  

Principles and Elements of Cleaning 

At SERVPRO, our technicians train extensively to ensure that our cleaning efforts are successful. First, we focus on the principles of cleaning: 

• Locating the fire residues
• Identifying the type of residue
• Identifying the types of surfaces affected
• Capturing and removing residues for proper disposal  

Armed with that knowledge, we approach cleaning tasks by manipulating the following elements of cleaning: 

• Temperature
• Agitation 
• Chemical action
• Time 

How Do Protein-Based Residues Fit the Protocol? 

SERVPRO of Montgomery technicians are familiar with the challenges of resolving kitchen fire residues. The greasy, almost varnish-like residues are impervious to the water-based cleansers frequently relied upon as “one size fits all” solutions for cleanup. We use research-based procedures to break the bonds, utilizing the principle that “like dissolves like.” Instead of soap, we select a solvent and often choose to employ both agitation and abrasive tools to loosen the kitchen fire sourced soot. Detergents can also help us dislodge oily residues, acting with water to create an emulsion to suspend the dehydrated food and grease particles. 

SERVPRO of Montgomery has a highly-trained and skilled workforce ready to assist with your fire damage challenges. Call us at 334.284.1612