Fire & Smoke Damage
Fire damage is rarely confined to what burned. Smoke travels through shafts, corridors, and return air, and the residue it leaves behind is corrosive. The units that never saw flame are often the ones with the longest scope.
Soot is corrosive. Time makes it permanent.
Smoke residue etches metal, stains porous finishes, and bonds harder to surfaces the longer it sits. The difference between cleaning a fixture and replacing it is often measured in days, which is why stabilization starts before the claim is settled.
Call us when you have
- Fire damage in a unit, common area, or commercial space
- Smoke migration into units that were never touched by flame
- Odor complaints from tenants after a fire elsewhere in the building
- An open roof, wall, or window after fire department entry
- Water damage from suppression that now needs drying as well
- Electrical or kitchen fire with concentrated residue
What arrives on site
- Board-up and shrink-wrap materials for open envelope
- HEPA vacuums, dry sponges, and residue-specific cleaning agents
- Hydroxyl and ozone equipment for odor, matched to occupancy
- Air scrubbers and negative air for containment
- Drying equipment where suppression water is also in play
What the fire and smoke scope covers
- Emergency board-up, tarping, and site security
- Soot and residue removal from structure and finishes
- Smoke deodorization, including hydroxyl and thermal treatment
- HVAC and duct cleaning to stop odor recirculating
- Contents cleaning, inventory, and packout
- Removal of unsalvageable materials with documented justification
- Sealing of structural surfaces before rebuild
- Suppression water extraction and structural drying
How it runs
Secure
Board-up and weather protection so the building stops taking on new damage.
Assess residue
We identify what burned, because the residue type determines the cleaning method.
Clean and deodorize
Structure, contents, and air handled together so odor does not return after occupancy.
Rebuild
Sealing and reconstruction by the same team, straight through to final completion.
Common questions
Why do units far from the fire still smell?
Smoke follows the same paths air does: shafts, corridors, plumbing chases, and return air. In multifamily buildings odor routinely shows up several floors from the origin. Those units need genuine deodorization, not air freshener, or the complaint comes back as soon as the weather changes and the building pressure shifts.
Can contents be saved or do they need replacing?
It depends on the material and how long the residue sat. Hard non-porous items usually clean well. Porous items such as upholstery, mattresses, and some textiles are often more expensive to restore than replace. We inventory contents and give you a documented salvage recommendation per item rather than a blanket call, because that inventory is what the carrier evaluates.
Do you handle the suppression water too?
Yes. Most fire losses are also water losses. We extract and dry as part of the same scope rather than treating it as a separate job, which matters because trapped suppression water behind a wall becomes a second, larger claim two weeks later.
How soon can tenants return?
That depends on the extent of the damage and, in occupied buildings, on what your managing agent and any authority having jurisdiction require. We can usually make unaffected units habitable well before the origin unit is rebuilt, and we sequence the work to get people back in as early as the conditions genuinely allow.
One contractor for the whole recovery.
Fast, reliable restoration. Day or night.
24 hour emergency response across the New York City metro.
Call us: 917-909-4091