Anyone that’s experienced a home or business fire knows the odor attached and the black soot that covers everything. What most people don’t know is that the soot and ash from a fire is highly toxic and contain cancer-causing carcinogens. However, the soot and ash from forest fires can also adversely affect homes and businesses.
Building Materials
Homes and businesses contain a variety of building materials and they aren’t completely incinerated during a fire. Fire generates smoke from burning materials that carry microscopic particles called soot. It’s disseminated throughout the structure and soot particles blanket everything as they’re carried by air currents. The toxic particles invade even the smallest of spaces.
Without appropriate remediation and removal, the particles remain in a structure where they continue to emit the smell of smoke and present a health danger. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, if soot is allowed to remain in structures, it can result in cancer, cardiovascular dysfunction, and respiratory disease. The soot introduces free radicals into the body causing oxidative stress that damages DNA.
Wildfires
People have been cooking food and warming themselves over open fires for centuries without apparent harm. Individuals have been evading forest fires for an equal amount of time. The difference between then and now are the chemical compounds that are released. Most modern chemicals are retained on a tree’s surface and washed to the forest floor when it rains.
Trees aren’t completely consumed in a forest fire. Smoke and soot are spread far and wide. The forest floor where chemicals have been washed are also burned during a forest fire, contributing to the dissemination of particles that contain chemicals. Those particles penetrate homes and businesses as easily as those released during a structure fire.
Walking through the ash generated by a forest fire allows particles to adhere to shoes and clothing where they’re spread to other locations. It also disturbs the ash where it’s often inhaled.
Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida Rapid Restoration is South Florida’s #1 restoration company in the disaster relief industry. With 24/7 emergency services we have provided thousands of clients with emergency restoration services throughout Boca Raton, Palm Beach, Miami Dade, Broward, and Port St. Lucie Counties. We offer property restoration, mediation and, repair for water damage, mold removal, fire, smoke and biohazard removal services throughout the entire South Florida area.
We are a Licensed Commercial and Residential Emergency Restoration Contractor.
Whether it’s your home or office that’s been affected by water damage, fire, smoke damage, or mold, contact Rapid Restoration Recovery, Inc.
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