There was a fire next door. Should you worry?

8/5/2022 (Permalink)

A house fire, especially a serious one, can be a really terrifying thing. 

Within a very short timeline, your home can go from a safe, comfortable place to a dangerous, uninhabitable environment.

What many people don't realize is that house fires affect more than just the houses where they start.

Smoke, soot and other forms of damage can easily affect neighboring homes as well.

As smoke pours out of the source unit, it doesn't necessarily just go straight up into the sky. It can migrate to nearby structures, get blown around, and cause serious secondary damage throughout the neighborhood.

Often, this damage is most pronounced in the form of odor. Even when the restoration is totally complete on the source unit, neighboring people may notice that they still detect a smoke odor in their own homes.

Sometimes, this is psychological - they're so used to smelling smoke that they can't shake it. But often, it's a sign that the neighboring home may need some level of cleaning and restoration as well.