Removing Smoke Odors from a Local Library

12/3/2020 (Permalink)

Fire damage odors can be a considerable obstacle for restorers, and there are multiple deodorization strategies to help.

When even a small fire ignites in a Northern Virginia library, there are many potential obstacles and hurdles that fire restoration companies like our SERVPRO team must overcome. While much of these initial steps involve the mitigation stages such as debris removal and surface cleaning, in many ways, lingering odors can pose the most significant challenge to making fire losses "Like it never even happened."

While fire damage restoration for public structures involves a careful union of advanced cleaning techniques and containment strategies, libraries add further challenges with so many volumes of literature to preserve and protect. These contents are as crucial in many ways as the structure itself, as this represents the borough's investments into the education of its residents. While smoke residues and ash can present immediate threats to these books and works, odors can become a lingering concern that stays trapped in the paper pages and covers of these novels stocked on the shelves. Removing odors often falls to several capable pieces of equipment in our inventory, including:

Is Fogging the Best Odor Removal Approach?

While each of these deodorization approaches can have its ideal use in fire restoration cleanup and recovery, few have the versatility of thermal and ULV fogging. By creating a mist or vapor of deodorizing compounds, they can penetrate porous surfaces and contents to neutralize smoke and burning odors already embedded there. With the lightweight portability of fogging units, they are among the most widely used in odor removal approaches. Fire losses can be a challenge for public buildings like the library when contents become exposed.