Industrial Fire Loss in Santa Fe Springs August 2016

10/11/2016 (Permalink)

Piles of burnt materials, equipment and supplies in the storage yard before SERVPRO arrived.

On August 11^th, SERVPRO of Glendora/San Dimas was contacted regarding a fire damaged and smoke damaged business in an industrial building located in Santa Fe Springs.    The structure is an 18,000 sq. ft. masonry building and the owner was notified of a fire in the storage yard on the South side of the structure. 

There were people working inside the facility at the time and loading dock doors were rolled up which allowed smoke to enter the facility causing damaging contamination of contents and structure.  SERVPRO Franchise owner Joe McCann was on the site early on August 11^th to survey the damage and begin the process of returning this business back to its pre-fire condition.  

Immediately, dozens of “Air Movers” and “Air Scrubbers” with HEPA Filters were set up inside the building to remove airborne particles and smells so normal operations could resume in parallel with the bigger job of cleaning and restoring the fire damaged and smoke damaged facility.   Piles of burned materials, equipment, and supplies in the storage yard were removed to clear the way for SERVPRO Glendora/San Dimas recovery vehicles to bring in the needed supplies and equipment to begin the clean-up process.  An industrial Hygienist was brought in to take samples of the air quality and surface contamination caused from the smoke to determine the type and extent of cleaning required to return the facility to a safe working environment.

Man-lifts were brought in to give clean-up Technicians access to the ceiling, walls, and upper shelves of inventory that needed to be wiped down to remove the acidic contamination caused by the smoke that entered the building.    

This business was potentially going to experience severe financial losses if they had to shut down operations during the clean-up and the owner asked if SERVPRO Glendora/San Dimas could do the clean-up while allowing the business to continue operating.  Though challenging, a plan was agreed to that would allow both the SERVPRO clean-up and the business to continue operations in parallel with minimal impact to either party.

Initial Clean-up was completed on August 26^th returning the business to full operational status.  Reconstruction was on track and would cause minimal disruption to the business until completed.

This project is a great example of a “Fire Loss” where a business could possibly be seriously handicapped or even shut down from fire damages and smoke damages.   However, teaming with SERVPRO Glendora/San Dimas, a solution was reached allowing the Santa Fe Springs business to continue while assuring a safe working environment to employees, customers, and SERVPRO Technicians minimizing the costs to all parties involved.