After-Fire Hazards: What You Need to Know

12/8/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO is always here to help!

As the holidays draw ever-nearer, SERVPRO Mesquite & Kaufman County/Cedar Creek want to gently and courteously remind our readers that our Christmas staples – the open-fires and twinkling lights, the family s’mores and stove-top kettle corn – all present dangerous opportunities for fires to start. And as we all know, once a fire starts, it can spread rapidly, wreaking havoc throughout the beloved family home and making a mess of not only your holiday season, but your life.

What some might not realize is that a fire’s danger doesn’t stop and end with the fire itself. Smoke, and the resulting soot, is a dangerous respiratory hazard in its own right. Soot may include byproducts that at first seem unrelated to the original material. For example, hydrogen cyanide is a byproduct of burning wool. When wood burns it can produce manganese and benzene—and none of these are things that the average resident wants in their lungs, which is where, unfortunately, it will end up if you’re exposed.

The particle size of soot is approximately 2.5 microns, which is a size associated with deep lung penetration, since it’s then small enough to penetrate the lower-lung, where gas-exchange occurs in the alveoli. Anything bigger than approximately 10 microns will stick to the walls of your upper respiratory tract – which doesn’t include those dangerous sooty materials.

What does this mean for you?

This means that if you spend a prolonged amount of time in the areas of your home that have been affected by fire, you’re exposing yourself to harmful and hazardous materials. After all, when a fire consumes a home, it burns our modern-day fixtures and appliances, which usually include plastics, foams, fabrics, carpets, wood products, synthetic fabrics, wool, and asbestos-containing materials. It is important to recognize that these materials undergo pyrolysis during a fire and become the deposits that are identified as soot.

The effects of exposure depend heavily on the material burned—but in a typical, modern-day home, it’s possible that residents may be exposed to dangerous soot that can irritate the lungs in the best case scenario (if it can be called such,) and soot that acts as a vehicle for harmful chemicals to enter your lungs, at which point the risks increase and vary heavily.

What do you do now?

If you find yourself reeling from the effects of a house fire, contact SERVPRO to handle the fire restoration immediately.

Our SERVPRO team is composed of capable, experienced team members that are not only equipped to handle the job, but dedicated to getting your life after a fire back on track, "Like it never even happened." We can assess the damage in your home and clean it quickly and efficiently, and put you back in a place where you can bring in the New Year, worry-free.