Saving Electronics Damaged by Fire

No one can understand the trauma and heartache that comes from a house fire. Boy, do we understand that. The National Fire Protection Association estimates there are nearly 1.3 million fires reported every year in the U.S., resulting in $11.6 billion in property damage.

The good news is, thanks to some major innovations in cleaning and restoration technology, it is possible to salvage more fire-damaged items than ever from your Emporia-area home.

Depending on the severity of a fire, it is highly possible that most of the soft goods like clothing, bedding, and curtains can be cleaned and restored to their pre-loss condition. The same goes for that expensive designer purse in your closet, and even your electronics and family photos.

How much could you lose?

How much have you thought about what you could lose if there was a fire in your home? Are your computers backed up on a regular basis to hard drives so you don’t lose any data or important documents? Do you have an accurate inventory of all your computers, printer, TVs, etc? And here is another big one – is your homeowner’s insurance policy big enough to cover everything you will lose?

Thanks to innovations in technology, and careful training, it might be possible to restore your electronic equipment like computers and printers, and even recover data from water-logged machines.

The restoration process

Let’s walk through this in terms of a desktop computer.

Once the computer is labeled at your business and brought to our cleaning facility, it will be evaluated to see if it is salvageable, and then carefully taken apart by one of our contents restoration specialists.

Believe it or not, water will likely be used to restore your damaged electronics. Some restoration companies like Stover’s Restoration have ultrasonic machines that use deionized water to carefully clean the electronics. Deionized water is essentially free of minerals and non-conductive, so it won’t leave any residue or deposits on the electronic components.

Once the computer is disassembled and cleaned, it will be dried and potentially put through a unique deodorization process to neutralize any smoke odors that might still be lingering.

With the cleaning and deodorization process done, the computer is ready to be carefully reassembled. During the disassembly and reassembly process, technicians will be careful to make sure there is no static charge that could damage inner components. Plus, once it is back together, they will test out the computer to be sure it works correctly. Then, it will be repackaged to be delivered back to you once you are ready to get your items back.

Beyond electronics

Like we mentioned earlier, technology allows for a lot more than electronics to be restored. Stover’s Restoration has an entire contents team that will carefully label and box up items from your fire-damaged home, and bring them to our facility to be cleaned. Fine china, family pictures, stuffed animals, even a treadmill or refrigerator, many items in a home can be cleaned and restored to the pre-fire condition.

In the end, the intention is to get you back in your home – with your things – sooner.