How To Deal With the Aftermath of a Fire in Your Home
Few things can cause as much devastation to a home as a fire. Fire damage can be extremely serious and is a traumatic event to go through. Once you have gotten through the initial stage and the fire has been extinguished, you’re left with the question of what to do next. How do you deal with the aftermath of a fire in your home? Even a seemingly small fire that is contained in one room can still have a massive impact.
Here are some of the steps you’ll want to take as you move forward after suffering a fire in your home.
Contact Your Insurance Company
The very first step in the process after the fire has been put out and everyone is safe and sound is to contact your home insurance provider. It needs to be done pretty quickly, as they will open up the claim process immediately and start collecting information and documenting the event.
Another reason to contact your insurance agent is they are well-trained to help homeowners in the aftermath and can assist with temporary emergency living expenses and accommodations if needed. They can go over your policy to look at what you have coverage for, and answer your questions. Your insurance company will also want the official fire report, which you may have to request from the fire department.
Is the Home Safe to Live In? Is the Home Salvageable?
These are two questions that must be addressed as hard as they are to hear. Depending on how extensive the fire damage is, your home may not be safe to live in. In those cases, the fire department will speak to you about its condition and that’s when temporary living arrangements will be necessary. The fire department is the one that will decide if your home is safe to enter.
Unfortunately, even if things don’t look “too bad” from the exterior, there can be structural damage that threatens the integrity of the home.
Should the damage be extensive enough, it may not be worth fixing. What this means is that the cost to fix it and make the home safe again exceeds its value. In these cases, it makes more financial sense to demolish it and it will need to be rebuilt. This is devastating news for a homeowner to hear, but it needs to be safe.
What About Fire Restoration?
Now maybe the fire damage hasn’t been too extensive, which means restoration is possible. You’ll need to work with a professional and experienced company that knows how to properly address fire damage. Your insurance provider may have a list of restoration companies they work with, or you may need to find one on your own. Their role will be to assess the damage, figure out what can be salvaged, what can be restored, and how to bring the property back to a safe condition.
A Traumatic Experience to Go Through
No matter how you cut it, a fire in the home is an incredibly traumatic experience to go through, even if it’s a relatively minor fire. Taking the right steps in the aftermath will help things to proceed more smoothly.
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