One of the collateral consequences of fire damage is the threats it can pose to your health. In some cases, the health threats posed by a fire can be even more dangerous than the fire itself. Here are four of the health risks you should be most concerned about after a fire from our fire damage cleanup professionals at GCPRO, serving Chicago.
Smoke inhalation is not something you should take lightly. In fact, the most common cause of death in fatal house fires is not from the heat of the fire. Rather, it typically occurs due to smoke inhalation. While you hopefully won’t ever be in an extreme situation such as a potentially deadly house fire, you still need to be extremely cautious about smoke inhalation. Even after the fire is put out, for example, you can still damage your lungs by going back into the home without proper respiratory protection. This is why one of the most important and time-consuming aspects of the fire damage cleanup process is removing the remaining smoky odor from the home.
In the same vein as smoke inhalation, soot inhalation is another hazard that poses a serious threat to your well-being and specifically to your respiratory system. Soot particles are made up of tiny, microscopic remnants from the fire. They are small even to bypass many types of respiratory protection and can even have carcinogenic properties in some cases. The hazard of soot inhalation is the main reason you should avoid going back into your home after a fire until it has been deemed safe to do so by a fire damage cleanup professional.
The danger of structural damage resulting from a fire is obvious. However, it isn’t always quite so obvious how severe or pervasive the damage is. This can put you in danger of part of your home collapsing or caving in without notice. It can be difficult to detect if your home is near this state so you should have your home professionally inspected by fire damage cleanup experts to ensure it is structurally sound before you go back inside it.
Most people don’t immediately associate mold growth with fire damage. When you think about it, though, the connection is clear. Massive amounts of water are required to put out a fire. Once the fire has been extinguished, this water doesn’t just go away. It needs to be promptly removed or else mold will inevitably begin to grow and spread throughout the home. There are many detrimental health effects of mold exposure including irritated eyes and skin, coughing, sneezing, respiratory problems, fatigue, and others.
Don’t allow your health to be put in jeopardy after a fire! To avoid any of the hazards listed above, give us a call at GCPRO, in Chicago, as soon as possible if your home is damaged by a fire and we will be right out to cleanup the damage and keep you safe in the process.
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