Kitchen fires happen – the most common cause of household fires

The fire started in the kitchen when the homeowner went into another room – “just for a second.”

Where the fire went – up and out of the kitchen

The fire was contained to the first floor, and everyone was able to get out safely, so thankfully there were no injuries to the residents of the home.

However, the water damage in the basement left by the fire fighters who put the fire out was extensive – as well as the smoke damage to the contents throughout the home.

Smoke damage from the kitchen fire in the bathroom on the other side of the house

What made things worse were the piles and piles of belongings throughout the home. Every room of the home was filled with clutter!

Smoke damage throughout the house – even in the bedrooms

To add insult to injury, the homeowner had several cats who had decided that the piles of clutter in the basement were fair game to use as a litter box.

Piles of children’s books and papers in the basement now ruined by the water used to put out the fire

So, now, not only was the home damaged with fire, smoke and water, the contents in the basement were infested with fleas and cat feces. . . .

And, you can only imagine the smell!

Before we could even begin to do the smoke and fire remediation, we had to call in an exterminator.

Precious possessions now burned – somewhere in this pile are several Coach® handbags

The saddest part was that the owner of this home had a beautiful collection of Coach® handbags she had received as gifts from friends and family members.

Because the Coach® collection was mixed in with all of her other belongings, many of them were destroyed by the water the fire fighters used to put out the fire, and the smoke that permeated everything in the home.

We were able to help her by getting her home clean, dry and sanitized and we cleaned the undamaged items so they could be moved back into the home.

But, it took several months for all the work to be completed.

And, the homeowner lost many of her cherished belongings – including several of her cherished Coach® handbags.

So here are the top 8 reasons that just might motivate you to do some Fall cleaning and de-clutter your home right now:

1. The first and most important reason to de-clutter your home now: Piles of books, papers, and clothing on the floor are a fire hazard because they make exiting from a burning home safely much harder. Keep your home safe for you and your loved ones and de-clutter now so nobody trips and falls if they need to make a fast exit from your home!

2. Second, the cost of cleaning water and fire damaged homes increases with the amount of “stuff” you have because there’s so much more work to do.

Yes, your homeowner’s insurance policy will cover the cost of damages and restoration after a fire.

But, if you have a fire, it will take a lot longer to get back into your home after the remediation is complete because all the contents have to be cleaned off-site.

What that means is that the contents have to be packed out, each item individually cleaned by hand, then treated for smoke damage, and then re-packed to be moved back into the home after the remediation and repairs have been completed.

Do you really want to wait months for something to be cleaned and de-odorized and moved back into your home when you just don’t care about it anymore?

3. The third reason you want to de-clutter now: As with our Haddonfield, NJ homeowner with the Coach® handbag collection, the loss of precious personal belongings goes way up when there is smoke and water damage to a home that has suffered a fire.

Remember: In a home that suffers a fire, valuable items that are mixed in with items that no longer have any meaning for you might sometimes end up getting discarded.

4. Fourth, basement clutter, more than clutter in any other room, increases the chance that toxic mold will grow because there’s a decrease in the amount of air circulation. Decreased air circulating the in the basement increases the chance that moisture will be trapped in and among the clutter. Stagnant air in your basement will feed mold growth – and that’s even without a significant water damage event like a sewage backup, a sump pump failure or fire water damage.

5. The fifth reason you want to de-clutter now: Insurance Adjusters are only human. When they see a fire and water damaged home that is well maintained – clean and tidy – it’s a sign to them that the owners care about their property and their belongings. If the home is cluttered and dirty, it’s harder for the adjuster to place a value on the contents of the home. And, while there is estimating software that helps adjusters place value on fire and water damaged homes, it’s a much harder judgment call to estimate the damage to the contents. It’s not possible for an insurance adjuster to understand the meaningful or sentimental attachment you might have to some of your belongings if your home contains a lot of other things that no longer matter to you.

6. Sixth, de-cluttering now can save you money. There are some tax advantages (albeit small) to donating your unused belongings – housewares, clothing, toys. All you have to do is save your receipt when you donate and report it on your income tax return. If these items are sitting in your basement, don’t you think they could be put to better use for someone in need?

7. Seventh, if you plan to down-size later in life to a smaller residence, the move will be a lot easier if you “de-junkify” now. Why wait?

8. The eighth reason to de-clutter now: If you have adult children, it will be much easier for them to manage your estate after you pass if they don’t have to sort through items that have no meaning for them. If you love your children, you can save them undue physical and emotional hardship with the simple solution of de-cluttering now.

While we specialize in compassionate and caring treatment of fire and water damaged homes, we also hope that you never have to experience this kind of loss. And,thankfully, the statistics for fires in the homes in our region have been decreasing steadily for the past several years.

But, if you, or someone you love needs help recovering from the loss of a fire, call the fire damage remediation experts at PuroClean Emergency Recovery Services 877-750-7876. We can help you sort out, clean out, and move back in after fire, water and smoke damages your home. That’s why we’ve earned the reputation as The Paramedics of Property Damage ® So give us a call. You’ll be glad you did!

    Quite simply, the definition of our company

Before there was Hurricane Sandy, before Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene, there were still problems with mold at the Jersey shore.

This story is about a job we did more than 4 years ago. Its a story about honesty and integrity. It’s a story about a commitment to getting the job done right – even when it would have been easier to abandon the project.

In 2009, we were contacted by the owner of a condominium in Ocean City, NJ. She had suspected a problem with her unit. So, we suggested she get the testing done by an independent third party – which she did. The indoor hygienist did determine that there were elevated levels of mold spores in the home and wrote the protocol for remediation.

Setting up containment so no mold will contaminate the rest of the home

Following the written protocol from the Indoor Hygienist, we set up containment, and sealed off the rest of the home from the contaminated area. Then, we installed negative air, which helped to form a slight vacuum on the area being remediated and vented the contaminated air outside – where mold spores rightfully belong.

Toxic black mold growth on insulation contaminated this Ocean City Condo

We removed the drywall and all the contaminated building materials – including wet insulation.

Clearing the contaminated materials from the home helped solve part of the problem

However, even after following the protocol for remediating this home, the post-treatment indoor air quality test didn’t pass.
 

Even worse, the results from the test indicated that after remediation, the spore count was actually higher than before!
 

This had never happened before, and we were left wondering what went wrong.

We cleaned the home from top to bottom a second time, following all the IICRC recommendations and the protocol – without cost to the homeowner. It is our firm belief that the exercise of integrity reveals its full measure when there is no financial return for the effort in making things right.

And, a second indoor air quality test failed!

Beside ourselves with frustration (and not a little embarrassment!), we called in a trusted home inspector – and paid him out of our own pocket.

This is what was hiding in the crawl space under the condo

The home inspector was in the condo for all of 10 minutes and located the source of the problem.

Apparently, there had been a flood in this area of Ocean City a few months before the mold problem began in this condo. The crawl space under the condo unit had never been remediated by the Condo Association after the flood.

Along with the mud, mold and wet insulation, we found rat nests and rat traps – evidence that someone in the association knew about the problem.

The condo association has a problem. Flooding had destroyed the foundation.

We also found that the foundation was actually off the ground because the flooding had swept away the ground support.

The reason our indoor air quality test failed – twice! – was not because of our remediation efforts. It was because the negative air that was supplying a slight vacuum was bringing mold spores from the contaminated crawl space below into the condo unit! There was no way this condo unit could be remediated completely until the condo association did their due diligence in remediating the crawl space.

When last we heard, the owner of the condo unit was in legal proceedings with the condo association in order to resolve the problem. The condo association was not available for comment.

Our business exists to solve problems.

Sometimes, it’s to eliminate the health hazards of mold contamination.
Sometimes, it’s to find out why the mold contamination problem existed in the first place!

PuroClean Emergency Recovery Services 877-750-7876 – your trusted provider for mold damage remediation!

Improperly installed blown in attic insulation caused a problem for these Delran, NJ homeowners

Every business exists to solve problems, and ours is no different.
A few years ago, we were called in to solve special cleaning problem for another contractor.

One of his technicians made a huge mistake when installing blown-in, cellulose insulation. He had forgotten to seal off all the doors and entryways BEFORE starting the installation process. As you can imagine, the end result was was a huge mess, with cellulose insulation dust permeating every room in the home.

The contractor had already called in a maid service who vacuumed and dusted the home twice, but they were unable to contain and capture all the dust.

Cellulose insulation is made from three-fourths recycled newspapers with most of the non-recycled content being fire-resistant chemicals. The chemicals added to the cellulose insulation protect against fire and are considered to be non-toxic and generally regarded as safe – for most people. And, in the unlikely event of a fire, the vapors released are not poisonous. The same chemicals used to make the cellulose fire retardant have an added benefit: they scare off rodents, insects, and mold.

However, in this case, the homeowners were chemically sensitive to the fire retardant chemicals used to treat the cellulose insulation. Now that dust was airborne. And it was causing them breathing difficulties. These difficulties with indoor air quality were so bad, the homeowners had to leave and stay with their son.

Our initial site visit first seemed inconclusive. The home was neat and clean – almost spotless.

This bathroom looks clean on the surface

The extent of the dust problem was not immediately evident

In order to fix the problem, we had to identify just how bad it was

Shining a light on the dust problem helped us determine the scope of work

The dust seen on the table and window highlights just how bad the problem was for these homeowners. Remember, a maid service had already cleaned this home – twice! – before they called in PuroClean Emergency Recovery Services.

In order to make their home liveable again, we used HEPA filtration technology on all floors of this split level home – 5 devices in all – that exchanged all the air in the home several times a day for 2 weeks. While the air was being “scrubbed,” all vertical and horizontal surfaces were cleaned – ceiling, walls, furniture and floors – twice. The result: An indoor air quality test passed on all parameters and the homeowners were able to move back in!

So, if you or a contractor you know has a cleaning problem that defies definition, call in the problem solving experts at PuroClean Emergency Recovery Services at 877-750-7876

Many of the people displaced by the mandatory evacuation orders from New York City to Atlantic City were pet owners. And, while some of the shelters allowed evacuees to bring their pets with them, not all areas in Sandy’s path had made emergency provisions for animals. For public health reasons, many emergency shelters (and in some cases all of the designated emergency shelters) refused to accept pets, even those in carriers.

As a result of the lack of shelters that could provide animal care, thousands of pets were marooned in flooded homes, or had gone missing in badly storm-damaged areas.
And now, even 9 months after the event, local shelters and rescues are still stretched to their limits with four-legged refugees. These shelters have taken in as many animals as they can pack
into their already full facilities, and have been trying diligently to re-unite the pets with their owners.

Preparing for pets now will help them survive later – Photo Credit: Monmouth County SPCA

So what are the lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy for pet owners – and what can we do to prevent this tragedy from being repeated?

Here are 6 great tips – summarized from the Ready.gov site – to help you prepare for your pets before the next disaster hits:

When a hot water heater blows, even the neighbors know!

Water damage remediation on a show room floor

So, what do you do if your water heater bursts?

1. Stop the Water!
Locate the cold water supply pipe on your unit. This is the pipe that leads from the main water line into the top of the water heater. When working properly, water stops flowing when the tank is full. But, if the tank bursts, the tank will keep trying to fill. As it does, water is pushed out into the room. To stop the water, turn off the cold water supply line by twisting the valve clockwise until it can’t turn anymore.

2. Shut Off the Power
An electric or gas heating element in your water heater is designed to be submerged. Once the tank bursts, the heating element can pose a fire hazard to your home or business if it continues to run without water surrounding it. Heating elements in hot water heaters are designed to shut off after the water reaches a certain temperature, but if your tank bursts because of a faulty thermostat, it probably won’t shut off by itself. To manually shut off the power, locate and flip the breaker for the hot water tank in your electrical breaker box. If the hot water heater is gas-powered, shut off the gas line leading to it, and vacate the building until the natural gas smell is completely gone.

3. Cleanup
Call PuroClean Emergency Recovery Services at 877-750-7876 as soon as you can. Having a flood of 40 to 100 gallons of water in your home or business is more than an ordinary shop vac can handle. In a situation like this, you want the experts with the proper equipment and meters to make sure the area is completely dry. If it isn’t dried completely – and fast – mold and bacteria are sure to grow.
Our water damage specialists will remove any undamaged furniture, boxes or other salvageable items from the water-damaged area. Then, we take photos of the items that are damaged, as well as the walls, floors and other fixtures that are covered or soaked with water. The photos will help your homeowner’s insurance company determine the cost to repair or replace the items.

4. Call your insurance agent
Contact your insurance agent or company to make a claim. Don’t throw away your hot water tank. An insurance adjuster will need to see it to determine the cause of the burst and whether the company will pay for damages that were caused by the burst. The cost of the water heater itself is usually not covered, but nearly anything else that was damaged by the water will be covered, less your deductible.